Path of the Ascendant

“How much have thee understood, child of Yi?” Chu Ling queried, storing the Copper Skin Toughening pills within a thin wooden bottle.

“I don’t want to brag, but it feels like I have understood most of it. The rest, I’m pretty sure, are from later chapters of the Cherry Revolving Blossom,” she said, “Am I right, or have I understood far less than I thought?”

“Not to worry, thou hath understood much, Wei’er. It is as thee hath theorized, I intentionally used my knowledge to test thee once again. I apologize for the repeated test of thine skill, but I wish to ascertain thine current comprehension as to teach thee in the best manner. Since thou art quick to understand, I shalt let thee participate in the next refinement. Do every step thee can, and I shalt complete those that thou art unable to.”

Yi Wei nodded and began to measure out ingredients using only her eyes. As most of them only needed to be there in the correct quantity, picking out two leaves of the spotted charm tree was not so difficult, and even the powdered and crushed ingredients were helpfully packaged in a transparent film by Chu Ling, though she didn’t want to ask exactly what the film was made out of.

After the green-clothed woman approved of the quantity of ingredients, she was able to move to the furnace and open the lid. Before she could get to the process of refining, it was important to clean the inside of the furnace and get rid of the ash and impurities that had been burned away.

It was a somewhat tedious process, without a doubt, but this was something that every alchemist she had ever spoken to had stressed the importance of. Supposedly, forgetting to do this can easily cause the refining of a pill to fail or become corrupted in some fashion, or otherwise damage the furnace and eventually lead to an explosion or general structural decay. Regardless of the exact outcome, it was wise to spend a few minutes to clean the furnace.

Once it was sufficiently clean, she opened the lower compartment that contained a small pile of coal and lit it. A weak-looking orange flame lit up, slowly growing until it burned over every piece of coal.

She shut the compartment before the fire had a chance to burst out. Had she been attempting to refine a pill with a greater number of stars, she would have had to use either a greater quality of kindling to produce a superior flame, or her own fire-type energy to condense an alchemical flame, the grade of which will differ based on the cultivator’s quality of fire techniques.

The furnace took a minute to heat up. Despite being made from wood, the surface showed no signs of suffering from the flame’s warmth, even with a few flowers growing from the tips of certain branches that made up the furnace’s surface. When the level of heat was just right, Yi Wei tossed a couple petals of the spotted charm tree into one corner of the upper part of the furnace, following up quickly with five other ingredients, all placed an equal distant apart from one another in a circle, akin to the petals of a cherry blossom.

When they began to burn, she lightly tapped the side of the furnace with her palm, causing a soft ringing sound. The ingredients within flew up by an inch and hovered in place for a little longer before they began to turn on the spot while also orbiting the centre of the furnace.

The key of the Cherry Revolving Blossom, as one could deduce from the name, was rotation and the shape of a cherry blossom. Through the connection of the shape to the core laws of the heavens, it allows for the purification and later coagulation of the medicinal elements within the ingredients used in the alchemical recipe.

The extraction and coalescing of alchemical elements was the difference between medicines and pills, though they were often used interchangeably when the exact topic was clear. No matter how skilled a common man was in preparing medicinal liquids, so long as they did not possess some form of pill refining technique, they would never be capable of extracting the elements within cleanly and then combining a number of them together to produce the desired result.

Naturally, most crafting techniques that involved any specific materials, like blacksmithing or alchemy, were graded primarily based on the percentage they are able to extract from the material used and then combine into the final product. The Cherry Revolving Blossom was able to work with three times the medicinal qualities within alchemical ingredients of common techniques, and thus it was able to use approximately thirty percent of the ingredient’s overall effect within the refinement process. It could be rated either as a three-star skill, or as a silver grade technique.

As to why there were two different methods of grading crafting skills… Once upon a time, two master craftsmen were arguing over the correct methods to grade their skills. One suggested that the best technique would be one that could make use of 100% of the material used, and thus it would be wise to keep following the star system and apply them to crafting techniques. The other did not believe that it was possible to achieve such perfection, as it was the realm of the heavens, and thus it would be most wise to use a new system, starting from mortal and ascending to dust, earth, silver, gold, heaven and, as the very peak, planar.

In the end, they both brought up reasonable arguments, but they could not decide upon either system. Even when they attempted to settle it with a duel, it turned out that both were in complete equilibrium. Whenever one had an advantage with a technique or a pill, the other brought out an inscription or some masterwork artefact that evened the battle out again. It is said that they engaged in combat for seven days and seven nights, before both craftsmen dropped to the ground out of exhaustion.

They attempted to pass the matter onto their disciples, but the few that were willing to argue over something like grading systems found that they were also in balance with their opponents.

A hundred years later, it was finally decided that both will remain, and that it would be wisest for anyone wishing to label a skill to do so with both methods, until one or the other could be proven to be unnecessary.

To this day, that had not occurred, and minor debates between young alchemists, blacksmiths, inscription masters, array crafters and talisman creators continue to happen, though the only ones capable of reaching a stage beyond the planar grade are more focused on developing their skills toward it instead of aimlessly shouting at one another.

‘There are a lot of debates like that in history. At one point, artefacts and medicines were also labelled with different systems, and it was supposedly impossible to buy anything reasonably. You might try to acquire a three-star talisman but would only be able to find earth-tier or high-tier talismans,’ Yi Wei’s mind drifted to a few things she had read while she waited for the pill refining process to complete. She had thrown in every ingredient in the correct order and allowed their properties to mix when the petals of the Cherry Blossom closed.

“Thou art performing better than I expected, child of Yi,” Chu Ling commented from the side, her hand placed on the surface of the furnace as she supplied the necessary planar energy to allow the process to proceed smoothly.

Had Yi Wei had the confidence to reveal her ability to use external force, she would have probably been able to do this herself, but for now the illusory cherry blossom in the middle of the furnace was made from the luminous green planar energy of the woman in green. It felt soft and welcoming, despite her not even being in contact with it.

“Now is the time for the final step. Would thee desire some assistance?”

“Is this part going to be particularly difficult?” she asked, slowing down the rotation as to not rush into the final step unprepared.

“Not necessarily so, but the failure rate for thine refinement is often incredibly high when thou hath not mastered the recipe. If it is in thine interests to succeed in this particular attempt, I can attempt to help thee and raise the chance of success, while also granting thee a little more experience in the process. What say thee?”

“Experience would certainly be helpful, and I can find a use for the pills, as well… Alright, I’ll appreciate your assistance.”

Chu Ling nodded and sent a greater quantity of her planar energy into it as the cherry blossom began to shut yet again, six mixtures of materials and effects drifting closer to the middle. Suddenly, as the energy mixed with what was already in the furnace, the warmth of the flame within leapt to ludicrous levels, as if the lower compartment had begun to house the earth fires of the heavens, while the medicinal masses above it melted completely into floating spheres of liquid.

In a flash, they came in contact with one another, spinning faster and faster, merging into a single mass, despite still being six distinct, individual objects. They lit up, glowing so brightly that even Yi Wei’s eyes struggled to endure the light…

The upper compartment’s lid shut sharply, just moments before the inside of the furnace exploded. A cloud of smoke burst out the top, a noxious smell floating out alongside it.

“This was a somewhat unexpected outcome,” Chu Ling mumbled, waving to the trees which caused them to quickly absorb the smoke before it could fly out of the grove, “Such an eruption of impurities means either a great success, or terrible failure. Art thou curious to see which it is?”

Yi Wei replied with action, opening the lid and peering inside.

Within the middle lay four rows of four pills, each of a coppery-green shade. They were round and made of crystalline material that caused the light that passed through them to refract in ways that made the inside glisten and shine with a metallic sheen. It was as if someone had trapped a small pool of copper within the middle of the round pills.

“Thine hands have done good work, Wei’er. Thou art unable to smell the medicinal scent, art thou?”

“Hm? No, no I cannot. Is that a good thing?”

The woman in green nodded, “Indeed. Have thou never considered why it could possibly be a good idea for the medicinal essence of a pill to constantly leak away in the form of the medicinal scent? When one is unable to detect such a thing, it means that the alchemist has successfully sealed the pills within and means that they will not decay in the next thousand years, or even longer depending on the pill itself.”

‘I see, that does make a lot of sense. If I touch a hot object but am unable to feel the heat within, that means it is perfectly sealed and will not escape any time soon, so the same principle obviously applies to pills and their effects,’ she understood, reaching into the furnace and removing the sixteen pills.

They were smooth and hard to the touch, like solid, round pieces of marble. Despite having been made only seconds ago, they retained little of the heat, containing only a semblance of the embers used to make them. Their appearance was rather appealing, so to stop herself from consuming it recklessly she stored it in a bottle and placed them into her pocket.

“If thee wishes my aid in the usage of the Copper Skin Toughening pills, I am always available to assist thee. If thou art in a difficult situation and require a safe haven, thou hath free entry to the grove, and the life here will fight against any invaders.”

“I understand. If you’re telling about this, is it about time for me to go?”

“It is getting late, so I thought that thine time would be better spent in rest. If thou hath other responsibilities to attend to over the week, I shalt not mind if thou doth not visit for a while, but please return within a week,” she said, waving her hand to cause another branch to descend right next to Yi Wei. It held a small red fruit, shaped like a mixture of an apple and lemon, though the fruit’s skin looked closer to that of a peach, “I recalled that I hath this unique fruit. The Crimson Star Fruit, as it is known, ought to do wonders to thine body, and should not harm thine future development. Take it on its own, and let the effects pass, or else thou would risk permanent harm to your physique and dantian.”

This was not surprising to her in any way, but Yi Wei appreciated the opportunity to look at her calming face, before mentally reprimanding herself for it, “Naturally. Something with a name like that typically has miraculous properties – in stories, at least – so I wouldn’t do something careless like that. Thank you for the advice nonetheless.”

“Hm,” the woman nodded, “Then I also do not need to remind thee not to show it to others.”

“Of course not. I’ll consume it soon, so that shouldn’t prove to be an issue… though, you wouldn’t happen to have some sort of storage ring?”

Chu Ling let out a quiet giggle at her question, “I truly didn’t have to remind thee, for thine knowledge of stories is clearly great if thou hath the misconception that common men and women like me are able to get their hands upon a spatial artefact of any kind. The head of thine family might have one, but not me. Even if I was fortunate enough to possess one, it would only be a single item intended for specific items. I could not pass it onto thee.”

Although spatial rings, bottomless bags and all sorts of other items were everywhere in the stories, often given to the protagonist early on to allow them to carry any items acquired in the future without any hassle, they were limited in reality for two main reason.

First of all, the materials required to make any form of spatial item were incredibly limited, and it could take several thousand years to gather the materials for a single flawed storage ring. This was reduced most frequently by limiting the types of items that could be stored within, or by complicating the storage process in order to minimize the quantity of spatial metal required. For example, a ring that could store ten cubic metres of any item might cost ten units of spatial metal, but if it can only hold charred ember rock and requires the user to perform forty different steps to place it into the ring, the cost could be reduced to two units of spatial metal.

The second issue was that there were few craftsmen capable of creating something that is able to sustain a sealed space. It was already difficult enough to find someone in the sixth, Linked Channels, realm, but the number of six-star blacksmiths, formation arrangers and inscription masters was even more limited, and you would need one of each to create the simplest of storage items.

“I figured, but you have already mentioned two strange fruits, so maybe you had something like that as well,” Yi Wei shrugged, “If you did, but I didn’t bother to ask and you didn’t care to mention it, I would have missed out on a very powerful artefact.”

“Fair enough, child of Yi. If thou art in need of anything else, I shall be here,” Chu Ling said, and sat down on the spot, a bench made from wood growing beneath her that very instant.

‘How useful that would be for me…’ the apprentice thought, though the idea became far less appealing once she considered the fact that this was the work of a forbidden skill, ‘Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be too useful if I had to bind myself to a single forest for the rest of my life, unless I obtained a complete spatial treasure that could hold living beings, thus allowing me to store my entire grove inside of the artefact and enter and leave whenever I need to, maintaining a link to the inside to keep myself alive.’

Since that was not an option at the moment, she stored the idea in some dark corner of her mind and excused herself from the Timeless Grove, a narrow pathway opening for her amidst the trees and closing the moment she stepped away.

Outside, she realised that the entrance to the forest was surprisingly close to the route she typically took to the Three Stars Pharmacy, and yet she had never witnessed such a great grove of trees on her many years of fetching things for Yi Zehao. Narrowing her eyes, she stepped away, onto the next street, and saw the tops of the trees disappearing from sight.

‘What? How? There was no aura of an illusory formation, nor any sign of anything else… What if I was to go back to the grove?’ she wondered, so she returned to the exact spot she stood in earlier.

There was still no sign of the trees.

“Child of Yi, art thou stumped by the disappearance of the wood?” Chu Ling’s voice entered her ears, akin to the first time, “Or have thou forgotten something in my territory?”

“I-” Yi Wei looked around to make sure no-one heard her effectively speaking to herself, then continued, “Yes, I realised that this place was near my path to my workplace, but I had somehow never noticed it. The next thing I know, the entire place vanished from sight.”

“Indeed, such a sight could shock many. It is a mixture of many things, involving arrays, inscriptions and artefacts, and it took me a lot of time to set up. If thou art interested in learning more, I can attempt to teach thee after thou hath mastered what I have to teach thee. I will see if there are any teachers willing to take on a clever student like thee.”

“Eh… Master Chu, I’ve already studied formation arrays, inscriptions, talismans and blacksmithing, and am currently studying them. I don’t think that your help will be necessary in this regard.”

“Oh? Oh… I’ll admit, I was excited to share thine prowess with the few friends I have… If I may ask, who art thine tutors in those fields? Have they accepted thee despite thine wood cultivation?” the soothing voice lost some of its confidence with each word.

“W-Well…” she remained silent for a while – although it was easy to reveal her many teachers, since it wouldn’t be too difficult to learn about them, there was very little she could possibly say to explain the matter of her seemingly having five different elements of cultivation at once. It was also something she couldn’t possibly hide, as any conversation between her five (or six, if she was to count Great Dark and Great Light as separate people) would immediately reveal the supposed existence either of a method that allows her to switch the element of her cultivation in a single day without any harm, or something that allows her to fake her true element.

The fact that both were somewhat true didn’t really help her case.

Eventually, she decided on obfuscating their identities for as long as possible, “They would prefer to keep their names hidden for now. If you are concerned about my safety in their hands, or something along those lines, I wouldn’t reject a token or item of some sort that I can use to protect myself, or to call you for aid if I get into trouble.”

This time, the other side remained silent for a while, “Very well. I shall grant thee the token of my Chu family. It should dissuade the common folk from harming thee, but if thou art in danger of attack by a family like the Yi, Luo or Ning, crush it and I shall attempt to come to thine aid.”

Something flashed in the air ahead of her, and a small, flat, rectangular wooden token flew out it, straight into Yi Wei’s idle hand. A single, large Chu character was carved into it, or perhaps it was simply grown in that shape. From it radiated a faint yet sharp aura, perhaps from her spiritual will, planar energy, killing intent or even some combination of all three. Since she was able to sense it even at her low realm, true experts would immediately be able to identify it.

“Thank you. I’ll be going now,” Yi Wei bowed to the air, and returned to her home with moderate speed.

Once there, she retrieved a blank sheet of paper, a thin stick of charcoal and began writing.

 

One week later, a woman dressed in a suspicious black robe and mask sat within a dark cave, the only entrance to which was blocked by a large rock covered in a large array. Another array lay beneath her, six talismans were placed in a circle around her, and several items were lined up in front of her.

Naturally, this person was Yi Wei, and what she was preparing to do was break through again. Beside the Planar Gathering talismans and the array she was sitting on, the pile of things before her included the Crimson Star Fruit, an Earth Physique Awakening pill, Copper Skin Toughening pills, and a number of other pills and miracle fruits, though the latter were naturally of a lower grade than the one offered by Chu Ling.

The reason for her delay on the consumption of the fruit was quite simple. During the process of a breakthrough, the body was able to rapidly process and absorb beneficial elements and remove harmful ones. In a way, it was one of the simplest, albeit not always the easiest, methods for one to cleanse their body of long-lasting poisons and afflictions.

It also allowed for a cultivator to absorb far more medicinal effects than they would otherwise be able to do, with less harm, especially when the breakthrough involved a major change in one’s cultivation, like the ascension of a realm.

‘Since the next step of my cultivation should condense my planar energy into liquid, this is the biggest step my energy will take until the Linked Channels realm,’ she recalled, confirming that she had everything she needed one last time before she began her attempt to forge an artificial physique, ‘Additionally, physiques are best created during a major process like a breakthrough, according to a number of books available in the Yi, Ning, Chu and Luo family archives, or what little I was able to glean from them.’

The creation of a physique would also contribute to the processing of medicinal effects, and could even imbue the physique with their effects, allowing one to have something akin to the Humanoid Pill Physique. Thus, she came up with the idea to do it all at once; to forge a physique, break through and consume far more medicinal items in one go than she should have ever been able to.

‘If I’m lucky, this will also affect my body in a way that allows that strange feeling of being on the brink of some greater step to pass by overfilling some metaphorical basin within me. As long as the results are generally positive, I’ll gladly accept some visual or physical oddities in return for success.’

Thus, she gathered up as many medicinal items as she could within the week, requesting help from the other four teachers. The majority of what she ended up getting was from Yi Yi, who instantly brought out ninety percent of the items she had before her at the moment, and even more that she chose to return to him so that she did not bankrupt him in just one request.

She lifted her mask and grabbed a handful of pills and stuffed them into her mouth, followed by another handful of miracle fruits to help her swallow them. On their own, any one of them might have been delicious to consume, but together they formed an incomprehensible mixture of hot and cold, sweet and sour, flavourful and lacking, that was not improved by the wild combination of Copper Skin, Muscle Expansion, Condensed Muscle, Minor Cleansing, Superior Marrow Refining and other pills, all of which also had their own distinctive taste.

As soon as her planar energy came into contact with this combination within her stomach, a vast quantity of energy burst out into her body, penetrating her flesh and bone with an even less pleasant combination of sensations. Before she had the chance to feel it breaking her body, she released six small bolts of lightning at the talismans around her while using her other hand to grab another handful of items.

The array and talismans activated, causing an immense surge of pure planar energy to crash down upon her, forcefully sending the violent forces within her back to her stomach, albeit only briefly as her next mouthful of miracle fruits caused them surge forth with twice the power.

‘Good thing I made all talismans using cosmic energy, or else they wouldn’t be able to hold up to just one fifth of these pills and fruits… Still, I have four more portions to consume, and only one more group of prepared talismans… I guess more practise with blood talismans was in order anyway…’ she thought, consuming the last of the second portion.

In a split second, she concluded that if she continued on with her current pace of consumption, she would be able to survive to her third portion before needing to reign it in again with the remaining talismans, so she kept going.

The last item she consumed as part of her third portion was the Crimson Star Fruit, which instantly sent a burst of flame through her entire body. It was akin to consuming a large bonfire in a single gulp, and every second after was like spitting it out and devouring it again. She would have loved to explain to someone exactly how painful it was but keeping herself alive came first. Drawing six more talismans, she activated them simultaneously, leaping up into the enormous wave of planar energy.

“Ugh…” Yi Wei groaned, spitting out a few drops of boiling blood that instantly evaporated upon hitting the cave floor.

With the brief reprieve from the raging energies, she was able to eat the fourth portion, and begin the fifth with the Earth Physique Awakening pill, the power from which sunk into her veins and latched onto the strange mixture of energy within her.

She threw out a dozen talisman papers and pierced the skin of her finger with her teeth, drawing the Planar Concentration talisman in her scalding and bubbling blood whilst also devouring the last few fruits and pills. Some of the juice had split from her mouth and was covering her chin and the front of her robes, but the slight discomfort that caused was nothing compared to the rapidly growing storm that was about to tear her into so many pieces that even the Master of Yi City wouldn’t be able to put them back together.

‘I think it’s time for cultivation and physique forging,’ she thought, activating her cultivation technique.

In the next moment, quite a number of things happened at once. Prime amongst them was the sudden burst of her planar energy that signified a breakthrough, as well as a secondary shock that flowed throughout her body. However, the sense she had of being on the tip of breaking past some boundary with her body also vanished, replaced with the feeling of a river beginning to flow through her very being. The gaseous form of her planar energy shook, and as it returned to her dantian, it slowly filled up more and more space until it finally breached the gap between the first and second realm, condensing into an opaque fluid that seemed to have no clear shade or colour of its own. Instead, it acted only as a portal into the void; countless stars, nebulae and galaxies danced within it, slowly drifting along and revealing other sights that were just as grand and wondrous.

Yi Wei realised that she had been holding her breath for some time, so she exhaled a mouthful of steam.  As her jaw moved, the subtle sound of cracking entered her ears, prompting her to look down and see a thick layer of black impurities covering every inch of her body.

‘I must have released them during the process of breaking through, and then failed to observe it for some time as I was too engrossed within my cosmic energy,’ she understood, moving to get up.

The second the muscle in her leg twitched, she suddenly flew up, crashing into the cave’s ceiling.