Path of the Ascendant

The figure had to wait for some resemblance of lips to return, and only then managed the faintest vocalisation.

“… I hate this.”

“Ascendant?” Chu Su asked, his hand gripping his chest before he even realized it, “What happened?”

“Pain. For me, mostly, since Primordial Metal probably can’t feel it…” Wei Yi muttered, her lungs, vocal chords, thoughts and everything else struggled to produce anything resembling a proper voice, “I’ll be fine in a while… If anyone finds some crimson cloth, bring it to me.”

As she spoke, her arm bones, which had been connected by the thinnest pieces of muscle and flesh that could exist, were slowly being pulled into place as her body grew back around them. Her chest, which had been ravaged as well, recovered what little she had there, and her legs similarly regained their typical state. Each breath brought greater comfort and stability, but it couldn’t fully mitigate the biggest gain and issue of the battle.

Her killing will had reached Half-Step Mental Discord realm, or half-way to the eighth realm, and the gap between it and her other cultivation paths was simply too extreme at the moment.

Still, this wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t succeeded, and the price of momentary frailty and longer-term mental instability were worth paying if it meant she could take down Primordial Metal and acquire the seventh stage in all of her other paths. In addition, she now had the Branch of Shards of the Metal Dao, reinforcing the knowledge that she had already accumulated, and it just so happened that it was incredibly beneficial to her own power. Moon Splitter was composed of broken shards made whole while still apart, and no other Primordial Deities were directly capable of supressing it.

Thus, she could use a set of Laws that the world and the heavens accepted to a certain extent, empower Moon Splitter with them, and increase the chances of breaking or damaging the other Primordial Deities by a small yet notable degree.

“Since no-one’s found it yet, the crimson fabric is to my left, a few hundred steps away. This may be the second time I’ve ended up showing off to a whole bunch of people, but that doesn’t mean its something I like doing for longer than necessary,” she said, noticing that the capable soldiers were far less capable when it came to searching for an obvious strip of red amidst a constant sea of silver.

By this point, she had been kneeling in the nude for nearly two minutes, and much of her body had recovered, accelerating with every physique vein and meridian that recovered.

It was fortunate that most had heard about her body and its unique features prior to this, or else she knew that there would be more gawking even with the tiredness making itself known among the people of Yi City and… well, only the people of Yi City, as soon as the two nations were made to join her under conditions that she found favourable to herself. Given the fact that there wasn’t much she wanted from either of them any longer, there was no reason to give them privileges they did not deserve.

“Here it is, Ascendant,” Chu Su continued to be helpful and quickly retrieved the remnants of the Crimson Robes, and handed them over while asking, “What exactly did you do against Primordial Metal? It seemed to affect the entire area…”

“It did. More than you think, actually,” she said simply, making the Crimson Robes recover with a wave of their remnant fabric, before placing it on her body in one smooth movement, “Come.”

He wanted to ask her about their destination, but before he knew it, he was already at the periphery of the Empire of the Dawn, and gazing upon a peculiar sight. There, in the air, forming a large circle around the entirety of the region, was some kind of distortion, not of light nor air, but seemingly of reality itself, which shifted in odd waves that folded onto themselves and produced something impossible.

Such a thing was familiar only to a few, Chu Su being amongst them, but despite the oddity of the distorting circle, he stood by for many breaths before he recalled the last time he had seen such a phenomenon.

“Reality Severance and Touch the Heavens?”

“Wrong origin, similar outcome – to a certain extent. You see, when it comes to the decay of just about anything you can imagine, it takes time. I lacked time. So, I had to make time.”

“… Make time?”

There were many things one could attempt to do with time, but almost all of them were impossible. Hence, any proclamation that related to time in anything other than its natural passage would always bring up doubts from anyone with the faintest understanding of the topic. Being the Chu Patriarchs ensured that he knew of this, and even the fact that the Ascendant said it didn’t convince it immediately.

“Reversing time is impossible, at least not if you remain within the boundaries of this reality. However, it turns out that it is possible to bump it forward a little bit, though only in a certain area. My focus was on the place where I and Primordial Metal fought, but I ended up covering most of the Empire’s central region, as well as some of the Coastal Lord’s lands,” she explained, “Now, the flow of time is partially distorted between this region and the outside. We are, technically, a day older than we should be.”

“Still, isn’t something like this completely impossible? To change space and time in such a manner is surely-”

“Spatial realms do it all the time, and even manage the conflicting flows of time oddly well. I borrowed some principles from those, improved my understanding slightly thanks to Primordial Cosmos’ Dao of Space, and then forced the chains of Law into proper motion… Took quite a bit out of me, and reduced me to a skeleton for a moment.”

“You had been in a worse state moments before we found you? Your regenerative capabilities seem to exceed anything ever recorded in the Chu District’s archives,” Chu Su noted, “This is despite plants often having far greater regenerative capabilities than men or beasts.”

“This happens quite often with me,” she said, choosing not to elaborate on her meaning.

With one final crack, her bones placed themselves into a proper place and concluded her healing process, though to describe it purely as such would not be accurate. Just as she always would, she took advantage of the recovery with her plentiful energy, and let the original traits of her planar energy – amplified significantly by the transformation into oblivion essence –wash over her recovering flesh, empowering it in the process.

There was little room for significant improvement, but was never a negative to improve her state and purify the impurities that would inevitably build up despite her best efforts.

It also had to be noted that she had not rebuilt her body since the time that she had made some significant changes to her internal structure, mainly in the dissolving of dantian shards, so she was overdue for some physical purification, and it came very conveniently after one battle and before another.

“What about that wave of killing intent?”

“The consequence of having one fifth of my cultivation paths be made from pure rage, and two fifths being focused upon my mental energy. While my mental energy is far superior to my body and oblivion essence, I will be a little more unstable than I would prefer to be, Fortunately, I have been dealing with things like this already, and my healed body has minimized the chances of random flare-ups that will pose quite as much danger as my first one,” Wei Yi explained, glancing in the direction of those that had fallen unconscious after said incident.

Her failure to compose herself was the cause of this, so she made up for it by providing some of the power from her physique abilities to everyone involved, whether they had collapsed or not. There was no anchor for the Kong Prison Realm in the lands of the formerly outside nations, so none had been receiving the benefits of her physique abilities like they usually might. As such, to give it back was even less of a kind act, and more of a necessary one, but it didn’t matter too much.

Rather than being nice to people, or repaying her dues, or making up for any of her mistakes, she had to prioritise the defeat of the next Primordial Deity, as well as choosing which entity she’d target.

In this instance, there wasn’t even much of a question, as she could determine her target solely by the biggest problem she was currently facing. Her mind was having problems, so something to boost her understanding of it, or its power, was essential to achieve the most effect from the next fight. Otherwise, her next breakthrough could easily push her killing will into the eighth realm without appropriate preparation or supporting energy, leading to significant mental decay and the potential loss of that unique factor that permits her mind to process vast quantities of information far more easily than most others would ever manage.

One might think that taking on Primordial Mind, the embodiment of mental energy, would be a sure way to run into that exact problem, but the world was rather funny in that this was not at all the case. Rather, it might lean towards the opposite.

Any Primordial Deity, especially Primordial Energy, was composed mostly of true, pure planar energy, as it was the essence of all other aspects of the Planar Continents. When she absorbed the power of Primordial Nature, for instance, she took in planar energy in an unusual state, but not bound wood-type planar energy, as one might if they were to take the power of a wood-type cultivator. Primordial Ocean was not composed of water-type energy, and Primordial Mind was, in actuality, a form of planar energy as well, and would be absorbed by her body as such.

Hence, the outcome of any Primordial Deity’s fall could be broken down into just a few things: plentiful planar energy, hints of a Dao that was then filled in by the heavens, and abnormal authority over the Dao that couldn’t be matched by reaching the ordinary stage of Full Success. This made most choices simple when a pressing matter was present.

“I’ll be heading to the Shun District. If the Coastal Lord and the Heavenly Peak Court ask about me, tell them I’m busy,” she said, vanishing from the spot and reappearing next to her destination.

With a stronger divine sense and the Yi City Web, such transportation could be accomplished easily.

She probably should have stuck around to speak with the leaders of the former outside nations, but she knew that it would be impossible to speak with them as calmly as she would need to in order to prevent them from taking the powers of major districts.

Dealing with them earlier would be better than later, but the matter of her mental state did provide her with a good enough reason for delaying even if she had genuinely intended to provide the outside nations with the status she had promised them. They would understand, and if they did not, then she could always pop over and slap them around a bit before returning to the battlefield and taking on Primordial Mind.

‘First, though, I should head over there, inspect its current state, and then attack it when I’m ready,’ Wei Yi thought, coming up to the Shun Patriarch’s residence and knocking softly upon the door.

Having met with him before, she knew that he wouldn’t object to an unscheduled meeting, especially when she had already told him to stay back from the fight previously. His abilities weren’t insignificant, same as with all of the other Patriarchs, and others who had reached the seventh realm, but there was one thing that he understood more than many of the others, as she gleaned from her first talk with him.

By letting him focus on matters that involved less combat and more diplomacy, as one might put it, she would be able to advance one of her ideas without needing to be directly involved. Changing the structure of Yi City sufficiently to permit her form of justice to exist within the world was a difficult undertaking, but there was one outside nation that she needed to introduce to him, so that he would be able to take it into account and implement their methods of legality and court procedure into the final structure of Yi City.

When she entered, she found him sitting on a soft cushion on the floor, wearing a light, thin robe. His eyes were closed, and he didn’t move when she entered, continuing his slow and quiet breathing as if he was the only one in the world, and none else mattered.

If she had the spare time and mental endurance to let him finish, she would have stood by and waited, but she could only guarantee so much stability before she might go mad and do something stupid. Ideally, this would happen amidst the fight with Primordial Mind, who would suffer from such an outburst if it occurred while she was attacking its mental space with a derivative of the Invader’s Roar.

“Shun Wang, I need to interrupt you for a while.”

“I figured. Your mental energy is unstable in comparison to a day earlier, and there is a strange aura around you.”

“Is it timeless in nature?”

“… I am not sure how to describe it.”

“Then let’s not focus on this. I wanted to tell you that I will be heading out to fight Primordial Mind, and that you ought to speak with the people of one of the outside nations. They called their nation the Heavenly Peak Court, and focused their law upon the decisions of said court. I would like to see if the court system could be added to Yi City’s existing – and rather minimal – systems to form something better.”

“Have you considered the specifics?” the Shun Patriarch asked, turning towards her.

“A little lacking on time and mental wherewithal, sorry. I’ll be considering it while preparing to fight Primordial Mind.”

“In that case, should I merely consider their policies and leave them for you to select from later on?”

“That would be best. As soon as I am able to assess everything properly, I’ll do so. After all, to me, it is far more important to make sure that Yi City can survive and improve for many billions of years, but killing Primordial Deities and repairing my mental state is necessary to achieve that goal, so I can’t ignore them,” she explained, not that it was necessary, “Before I go, how are things in general?”

“You can see it all, but I shall provide you with a summary of Yi City’s state as I see it. First of all, the matter of implementing any kind of court may be a little difficult. As the most powerful figure in Yi City, and the one that rules over two districts and Paragon, you might as well have complete control over what the districts do, but a court would have to take some authority. Either, it would hold some of the same powers, but be considered inferior to your personal judgement, or it would need to take over completely, eroding your own authority.

“I am not certain which you intend to perform, but either way, this would go contrary to the usual traditions of Yi City. You have experience with breaking them in the Gang District, but even that place hasn’t accepted your changes entirely. The whole of Yi City would resist even more.”

“Yeah, I can guess that much. Ideally, I would have a few million years to consider potential changes, introduce the good ones, discard some bad ideas, pilfer some of the knowledge of the otherworldly demons that fits with our world, and then implement the good parts of that…” she sighed, glancing up at the ceiling, though she would have preferred to gaze upon the heavens, whether their will was up there or not, “Primordial Deities are only the first of the threats that the Planar Continents will face.”

The Shun Patriarch nodded, “I believe you had mentioned them. Were they known as the Hunger of the Beyond?”

“They are indeed the threat that came next for Kong Shi Meng, so I expect them to follow the Primordial Deities in my case as well. After that, I will have to tackle the heavens – as they should be superior to the Hunger of the Beyond, or else they do not deserve the absurdly high status that everyone has assigned to them.”

Shun Wang didn’t comment, instead shutting his eyes and considering matters on his own. She didn’t intrude into his mind, as that would carry the risk of damaging it if her killing will lashed out at that moment, but it wasn’t difficult to guess some of the thoughts that might occur within.

Instead of doing that, she decided to turn and gaze through the walls onto the dome encompassing Primordial Mind and the minions that were continuously emerging from within. As she had previously taken it on rather quickly, she hadn’t gotten the chance to interact with them all that much, and it was only now that she had the time to take a closer look. They were somewhat abnormal in comparison to the minions of the elemental five Primordial Deities, as one might expect from entities that represented an element that was not ordinarily physical in nature, and didn’t move as simple beasts might be expected to.

Rather, they shifted around in odd waves, resulting in strange, almost gelatinous masses undulating outwards, spreading out and being attacked quickly by the forces of the Sun and Xin Districts. The two were directly bordering the gleaming dome, and so they had little choice in being the front for this particular series of battles.

The minions of Primordial Mind appeared to carry minimal physical force or ability, with their movements having little impact other than rustling the grass or dragging small particles of snow, but it only took a moment for Wei Yi to spot their primary method of attack. When they were seen by the forces of Yi City, they seemed to induce some kind of mental attack that left some stunned in place, and made others act illogically and unreasonably, with outcomes ranging from fleeing from the battlefield to attacking their own allies. Fortunately, this state didn’t usually last for long.

Most likely, they had an aura around them that could be compared to spiritual sense, and when others were either focused upon or got too near, it would be used to deliver some aspect of the minion’s mind to them. Simply perceiving something so foreign was enough to distort men’s thoughts.

As she was observing them from afar and with an absurdly powerful mind and mental energy in comparison to the usual cultivator, even one in the same realm, there was effectively no impact upon her, and she was forced to view the behaviour of combatants opposing these minions to glean insights into their abilities, but it was good enough. She was not going to sit around taking on too many of the mental energy blobs, as her interests lay in defeating the source of the blobs. That meant that she needed to figure out how it would attack her if she couldn’t defeat it in one go – a very likely situation, as her previous success yielded a powerful strike but little else – and getting biased impressions from the blobs would be unhelpful.

The best way to manage her expectations would be to not have any concrete expectations to begin with, which was something permitted by her expectation that the fight would be simpler than most.

She based it upon her knowledge that out of her paths, oblivion essence may have been the strongest, and Law may have been what she was most attuned with, but she was born with a mind that surpassed dragons, and developed killing intent that could swallow the world. Together, they were unshakable in any manner that would benefit Primordial Mind, as the worst it could do would be to agitate her into a frenzy that would consume it first. After that, she could calm herself, or let Yi Shi Ming do it instead.

“You held back the Primordial Deities, right? In that case, you should try to hold back the Hunger.”

“And in that time, focus on improving the state of Yi City, making sure that even if the battle takes decades, I will have laid the foundations for something decent to occur? It’s not the way I would have liked to do things, but it may be unavoidable.”

“I am in agreement, as I am concerned about your survival. You are a strong woman, that much cannot be denied by anyone, but you may still perish if some unfortunate accident occurs. At that point, if nothing has been established, then Yi City will collapse once more, perhaps even more quickly as there is nothing at all to hold it together. That’s without even considering everything you’ve been providing to it that others would not be able to replicate, like the archives of techniques and insights within Paragon.”

“Don’t like considering my own demise, but I have been trying to raise the power and capability of others. Anyway, we’ll see. I need to go and take a closer look at Primordial Mind.”

“May you finish it swiftly, and receive great fortune.”

“Good day to you as well.”

They parted like that, and the Ascendant vanished the moment after she stepped out of the front door. Her reappearance beside the glowing white dome was a little less smooth than usual, a few traces of black smoke pouring out around her, but that only turned the grass to dust and ripped a few small holes in the earth, which wasn’t that significant.

She looked towards the wave that was emerging from the tears in the barrier, and raised her left Arm, her claws being pointed directly at her foes.

As her killing will was currently overwhelming, and should also be the most effective weapon against an entity purely focused on the mind, she chose not to employ her usual techniques, nor to use the Invader’s Roar and everything that she associated with it. Instead, she would invoke the simplest method of attack that could be executed with a limb that retained its form only because this was her decision, not due to any unique aspect of the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow. It was raw energy, channelled forth into the world, killing will pouring from it endlessly, so rather than let it go to waste, she could unleash it.

With a single thought, her left hand erupted outwards, numerous spiking shapes bursting forth and stabbing into the various blobs of mental energy and shredding them to pieces with minimal contact. Since each one was formed from her energy, it could twist and turn freely, so each sharp thorn passed through as much of the horde as possible, and then exploded and took out more of Primordial Mind’s forces.

‘This is oddly fun. It doesn’t take up much of my mental capacity, so I might as well occupy myself with this for a while…’ she recovered her conjured limb in a moment, then struck out again, shifting her mental focus upon the threat within the dome.

She would help her people in the process, which was something she hadn’t initially intended to do to such an extent, but it might well let her cool down her head and calm the killing intent that kept surging from within the depths of her mind. Alternative means of calming herself couldn’t be more effective than literally expunging the cause of her current mental problems.

‘So, Primordial Mind. Like before, it still has a mental field around it, and with it the entity remains connected to its minions. I cannot touch it from outside, without letting the barrier disperse, but it cannot do much more than empower its minions slightly from within. Thus, I can spend some time here, but only so long as my mind allows. Assuming that the rate of killing will growth is linear, I can presume that it will be, I have a safe two days, risky three days, and an incredibly dangerous one day, so I should strike within two days, one if possible.’

Outside analysis was necessary to bet a better idea of the capabilities of an entity she had not fought properly, and this was what she had occupied her mind with.

Then, after a moment, she switched to the tried and tested method of her Endless Calculation, because some brief observation of Primordial Mind’ capabilities with her newly empowered killing will permitted her to perceive something that she had previously overlooked. The nature of Primordial Mind was clearly leaning towards emotions and illogical properties, yet it was very structured.

It could be compared to what might be produced if someone was asked to categorise and replicate human emotions in a length of time that is woefully insufficient for a task as nebulous and complex as that. The result was a set of concepts strung together loosely, and used poorly. When compared to what an entity representing the very concept of mental energy should be, Primordial Mind appeared to be a very poor fake.

Of course, it was a Primordial Deity, so it was her target, but it did make her wonder about the origin of these entities. Some were far more complete than others, and far more powerful also, yet there was essentially no reason for such things to occur.

Either way, she could only spare a little time on that series of thoughts, as she needed to devote her mind’s processing speed to the Endless Calculation method, but it was yet another curious matter to seek an answer for once she had the ability to do so. Whether that would be through punching the heavens in the face and questioning them directly, or perhaps by seeking out the answers on her own somewhere in the beyond, she didn’t care, though one would be far more pleasurable in the short term, at the very least.

‘Alright. Goal is one day, two days are fine, three would be pushing it. Mental capacity being designated entirely to researching Primordial Mind… now.’