Path of the Ascendant

On the twentieth, the barrier blossomed and boomed with power, nearly sufficient to return to its former strength, albeit not its former coverage. However, that was not to be, for the foe of the Great Leeches was none other than the Ascendant, an entity hitherto unseen within the Planar Continents in a great number of ways. Her power, as well as the range and types of it, was so extreme that there were few in this world that could even attempt to handle it while at a higher realm, not to mention being at the same or lower realm.

Nevertheless, it was clear to the people of the Chen District that there was little choice but to use the same tactics time and time again, and that meant keeping up the barrier with as much power as can be provided to it.

Most weren’t interested in supporting the Leeches, albeit not because of some ideological difference in stance. Rather, the Chen District had a number of names, like the district of money, wealth, trading, greed and more, but all of it narrowed down to wishing the proper remuneration for that which they did. The Leeches did not like providing money alongside demands, so there were disagreements.

That didn’t mean that there were none willing to fight the Ascendant’s Arbiters, and that none were aware of their intentions. Some had clearly comprehended that the Ascendant would attack as the barrier strengthened, even if they didn’t quite understand the purpose of doing such a thing, and so there was quite the crowd waiting for the Ascendant’s arrival. This much Wei Yi could learn from a few simple glances into the barrier of the Great Leeches, and so she was ready for them the moment that she broke the barrier. Speaking of that, she didn’t think it would take long even with some of the improvements and changes the Leeches had made to it.

As soon as the right moment came, she brought out the vast power she wielded and concentrated it into her own fist, making use of her favourite method – a pure and simple punch.

She did hold back a little, for she knew that the people on the other side might change their mind about confronting her once they saw her strike, but that didn’t stop her blow from shattering the ghostly green light completely, and barging into the lands of the Chen District right away. It left the people on the other side facing her directly, and there were one or two that promptly turned and departed with utmost haste.

Of course, the others must have already concluded that they would fight here and then, or else they wouldn’t have come to the front lines in the first place. Thus, the few that did flee were given dirty glances by all that had the opportunity to do so.

“People of the Chen District-”

“Ascendant, the people outside the walls have refused the protection of our walls, and have agreed to disregard their familial heritage and status. As such, feel free to dispatch them as swiftly as you wish, and we may be able to speak properly inside the walls, without unnecessary violence,” a voice from the district, belonging to their Patriarch, interrupted Wei Yi’s standard address to the people.

It was a little annoying, but it was a perfect excuse for her to test some techniques, so she didn’t say anything to him. “Your Patriarch doesn’t seem to mind, so please, come forth. Try me.”

They did, for they had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do.

Wei Yi only gave them a moment before she thrust her left hand forth, grasped the air, and lifted her hand up, a mass of energy condensing around her smoking hand. Those who focused more on her than their own offensive noted with some curiosity that the energy she was gathering was only at the fifth realm in terms of density, meaning that she was not even using her full power against the attackers. A few were upset, whereas the others understood this perfectly – out of the entire crowd that gathered to attempt fighting her, there were only three in the sixth realm, an insignificant number against a woman that had fought with Patriarchs even in the fifth realm.

The mass in her hand was released when she opened up her fingers, shooting up and flying in the direction of her foes. Each individual projectile flew towards a different location, ultimately landing at similar times and burrowing into the earth.

A moment of uncertainty was all they had. After all, none could miss the following bulging of the earth and the vast cracks that spread across its surface, preceding the sudden rupturing of several points by vast limbs made of celestial light. Great maws of earth opened up at random points along the sprawling cracks, unleashing those crimson cosmic entities without cessation, all of whom were malformed horrors with multiple limbs and bladed edges on most of them.

At the points where multiple cracks collided in their expansion, a larger gap in the earth was formed, and more entities emerged from within, their star-like eyes shining brightly as they looked out.

“Oh, so that’s what she was trying to do…” the dragons said collectively, glancing at one another as they did so. They were at the back, alongside the majority of the Arbiters, and they were seeing that their role on future battlefields might well be lessened even further so long as the technique on display is as effective as it looks.

The many entities that were formed charged towards those that they looked upon, a horrifying screech emerging from their mouths and numerous explosions occurring with every step as their energy collided with the matter of the world.

Each one flailed and slashed without much direction nor technique to their attacks, but the sheer force exhibited by their celestial limbs easily overwhelmed the defences and flesh of their foes. At the same time, there things were relatively fragile despite the might that they could exert, so those that chose to sacrifice themselves for the sake of taking down the celestial entities whether to preserve the lives of their allies – which made up the minority of such people, of course – or to earn themselves some kind of honour or prestige – a greater number, as such prestige could be profitable – did have some success.

They managed to take down a dozen such things around the same time, for the strategies to doing so were extremely straightforward, and got to witness the consequence of doing such a thing.

Having learned from her previous tests of the Replica Abyssal Eye, the Ascendant naturally made use of the experiments that resulted in exploding bodies and traps to focus all of those onto the entities that her working first attempt produced. Upon their death, the cosmic entities did not break or shatter, unlike what some of their opponents assumed, but instead split into several pieces and rapidly coalesced into spheres of raw energy that boiled with unseen fury.

A moment was given for all around them to evade, but they could hardly capitalise on it when the orbs did move at such a vast speed that no ordinary gaze could ever capture their movement beyond the start and end point. They were in their original places, and then they weren’t.

Their explosions could not be missed by anyone with even a single sense, regardless of its strength.

Each burst tore into the ground, obliterating the forms of all those within the nearest twenty metres, and still had enough power within to pass it onto any nearby celestial entities, causing their glow to brighten and their power to surge to the lowest threshold of the sixth realm, in terms of overall energy density.

Some had the faintest hope that this would be it, but the defeat of a sixth realm monstrosity only produced more explosions, more powerful bursts of force that culled the ranks of the Ascendant’s opposition and further empowered the entities that were caught within its expanded range to the middle of the sixth realm, although this didn’t matter when the majority of the fighting crowd was dead and gone. Perhaps some trace of their existence remained within the heavens, their energy bound to something in the past, but it would decay and their legacies would be gone, all because they thought to fight the wrong battle just this once.

There was something to be said regarding the unfairness of such a thing, but even without the involvement of the heavens, the world could never be a fair place. Wei Yi knew that, and if those that fought her didn’t, that was their responsibility, and their fault for lacking such basic knowledge.

Hence, as they headed forth, through the shattered fields before the Chen District, she didn’t bother addressing the few that remained. She went up to the walls of the district, avoiding the gates that weren’t too far away, and raised her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow once more, pointing its palm at the wall with a neutral expression, as if she was simply taking a casual stroll down the street instead of doing anything else.

“Ascendant, if you wish, you can-”

“Open,” she ignored the voice of the Chen Patriarch and invoked the Dao of Law, her eyes lighting up with the images of her physique abilities to amplify its power.

The wall before her shook as a series of holes formed within the gilded obstacle. Each one seemed to have the shape of a large chain, each link around the size of an open hand, and each one moved and expanded as the chains shifted and tightened their grip on the wall. It took them a moment to get a proper grip, but once they did, they pushed with unimaginable force.

Any gold that stood in the way was violently torn asunder, opening up a wide gash within the walls, from which the inside of the wall leaked out, revealing plenty of molten immortal gold that quickly cooled and turned solid, providing a smooth surface on which the Ascendant could walk with ease. One might think that such an event would surprise the people of the Chen District, for such a large quantity of immortal gold was valuable and immensely beneficial even if one could only claim a drop of it from the walls, but the presence of gold in the walls was such a common theory that it was essentially common knowledge for the people of the district. After all, there had to be a place where the wealth of the district could be stored securely, and which place was more secure than the walls themselves?

Others did think that it was a little stupid to presume such a thing, but there were few places in the Chen District that hadn’t traded hands dozen of times every week, with purchases, trades, bets and auctions occurring with such excessive regularity that there were no places consistently owned by the leaders of the Chen family that might be used for the storage of wealth. Despite that, they had wealth, and plenty of it, so it had to be somewhere.

When molten, immortal gold was significantly more malleable than in a solid state – obviously – but it also had a slightly higher density than solid immortal gold, meaning that it was easier to store.

“Ascendant, you… you didn’t have to… the walls…”

“Stop crying. This place is excellent for another gate, don’t you think?” Wei Yi said casually, stepping onto the gold and into the Chen District, “You could have stopped them from coming out in the first place, but didn’t, so I’m sure that you didn’t mind if I had done some collateral damage to the wall during the fight. It’s lucky that I had controlled myself earlier and opened up a way more calmly.”

“… If you say so. Just proceed inside already, and give my people some time to rebuild the walls before anyone touches the gold inside.”

“A little late for that…”

Obviously, the moment that gold became available to the people of the Chen District, they did everything they could to obtain it, rushing towards it like a ravenous swarm towards the first piece of food in months. Most acted in person, for they had to do so to be sure that they would get as much wealth as possible, but they were kind enough to give the Ascendant passage so that she and her people were able to get through without obstruction.

This was likely done so that they could get their hands on the gold she had walked upon first, but that was the problem of the Chen family, not her own. As such, she didn’t care for their behaviour whatsoever.

Wei Yi headed straight for the Ancestral Hall, went inside, and was stopped only by the steps further down where the Great Leeches of the Chen District sat. At the door to those stairs stood the Chen Patriarch, who was obviously flustered and had gone there hastily to prevent her from proceeding further. If she had moved a little quicker, she could have outrun his attempts at using a movement technique, but she figured that it would be a good idea to get his side of the story and figure out what he wanted from her.

“Ascendant, you waited… No matter, I won’t complain, for I wish to make sure you understand something. I and my family have no issues with you attacking the Great Families, even those that have chosen to hide in our Ancestral Hall, but we wish for a trade. A simple trade, an extremely simple trade, of knowledge for passage to the Greats.”

“Trade of knowledge? You could just join the Ascendant’s Arbiters and get all of the techniques and information that we have.”

“That may be considered later, but we want an immediate trade. Think of it as a whim of the Chen family, and one that shouldn’t come as much of a cost to you, seeing as you proudly boast of having so much knowledge about everything and anything,” the Chen Patriarch said, “Just provide us with some things that you can spare, and we will be content with it, although the quantity and significance are both relevant.”

“How will you verify the accuracy of my words? If it is insignificant information, you may not be able to verify it whatsoever until long after it even has any potential value, and long after I had taken advantage of lies to obtain that which I want from you.”

“Ah, then you have never come to our Chen District. Please, come with me and I shall explain exactly how we guarantee truthfulness.”

This was an interesting proposition, if only because the Ascendant wished to obtain something similar, and also due to her not being aware of anything that would enable this within her surroundings, even though her divine sense was able to see even what the Leeches were doing in great detail. Either they were lying to her, which was possible, or there was a method that she had not studied and was thus unable to identify from a careful examination of the district’s methods. If that was the case, then she would eagerly study it in depths to prevent this from happening in the future, and if it had some use to her… she would make sure to comprehend it beyond anything currently imagined.

She had a better idea of where to look once their destination became nearly obvious, but even then all she had to work with was a combination of array and an inscription placed beneath a large waist-high surface, functioning as a dividing desk between two chairs. The array was mostly concentrated in the desk itself, but the channels of the inscription stretched far beneath the ground, occupying most of the space beneath the floor of this room.

“What is this?”

“I’ll provide this to you for free, Ascendant, as a symbol of our willingness to cooperate. This arrangement here is called the Spoken Word’s Truth, and it is used very commonly for all transactions involving information in our district. It is fantastic, don’t you think?”

Wei Yi did not respond right away, for she was a little busy scanning both this combination, all of those in other chambers, and also the array that she was able to see just beneath the spatial stabilisation point, where two of the first generation of the Great Chen family stood and focused their energy. This lower array and inscription appeared to have no direct relation to the spatial stabilisation point, but what interested her most of all was the fact that this array appeared to be absolutely incredible, both in its construction and the manner in which it could help her.

The construction made it rather close to an eighth star great work, which was decent enough of a reason for her to have interest in it on its own. Completely comprehending the manner in which it was created and what made it tick, so to speak, would allow her to replicate that in the future, eventually permitting the creation of her own eight star arrays and inscriptions.

On the other hand, her desire for something of this nature could be sated even by the weaker four star arrays used more commonly by the people of the district, as she merely wanted a method to verify the truth of words – her own words. It was necessary to do so if she wished to bring the Western Continent to her side, as there would still be plenty of opposition to her will even if she was the most powerful entity in the world. She did not wish to force everyone into submission to do her will, certainly not when she could easily convince people to side with her instead, but to do so she needed some method of confirming truth that could be transmitted over a vast distance, and a method of communication to impart her words to others.

Provided that she wished to make use of the same gateway resonance method that she previously used to amplify her voice, she had the means of transmitting her voice to anyone within her lands, and further out now that she was in the seventh realm, but no method to prove her words. She could see whether her words were believed via the Proof of People’s Will, if she found a way to incorporate it into her method of communication, but those who didn’t believe her yet would be difficult to convince.

However, if there was a reliable method that she could employ, one that would be identifiable and verifiable, then she could ensure that she had plenty of support.

With plenty of support, she could employ the Proof of People’s Will in all future conflict, empowering herself greatly with a few more modifications to its structure that would channel the power entirely to her instead of concocting some kind of elaborate battlefield of ideas. Against the Great Leeches, and those that would come after they were gone and the power of the world rose, such aid would be immensely helpful, and if she was able to make use of it, she was certainly going to do so, especially with the countless other benefits that would be obtained from simply persuading the world that her and their interests aligned.

Since she believed that with complete honesty, there would be no problems in making that kind of statement via the arrays used in the Chen District. Some might be convinced by that little, which was incredibly convenient, and the others could be handled with simple enough arguments.

“I will be using this array of yours. If you have any problems with that, you better state it right away.”

“You… I see that you have recognised the immense value of our Spoken Word’s Truth, and for that reason, we offer you a discount-”

“Fuck off. I can read thoughts, so I know that you had never wished to sell it in the first place. Now that you are getting a buyer, just provide a reasonable offer and don’t try it,” Wei Yi said, “So, I can be incredibly nice to you, but you should remember that if the Chen District becomes rather troublesome, then I will take action to prevent that from getting any worse. Is that clear?”

“… I’d speak as a senior to tell you to be more polite, but there is little point to doing such a thing. You are too strong for the Patriarchs of the world to properly dispute your words, especially since I’ve heard that you have become a Matriarch yourself,” the Chen Patriarch said, “This can be part of the information exchange, but you ought to make sure that I receive something worthwhile for all this… Oh, and I will not permit you to tear out the greater World’s Truth great work from the basement of my Ancestral Hall. I don’t care how much you want it, make it yourself.”

“That’s my intention, Patriarch, and not because I consider the work of your family to be low quality. Rather, I have my own intentions for the array, and it will require modification and, most likely, putting together everything from scratch using my own energy. If nothing else, it would be cheaper.”

“Something being cheaper is always good…” the Patriarch said, not understanding exactly what she was up to, “So, please sit down and we may proceed.”

“Certainly.”

They sat down on either side of the surface within which the array of the Spoken Word’s Truth resided, with the Ascendant happening to take the spot that would usually be occupied by the people of the Chen District due to her prior position in the room. It didn’t seem to matter in the operation of the array, and even if there was some kind of etiquette regarding this, the Patriarch wasn’t bringing it up, allowing them to get on with the trade smoothly.

Although they had agreed to exchange information for access to the Great Leeches and no obstructions in using replicas of the World’s Truth arrays, as well as some information regarding its function and how to best replicate it, the Chen Patriarch hadn’t specified exactly how much was needed nor how the quantity and quality of information would be determined, so this is where he began.

“To ensure that our trade goes smoothly, my Chen District has a number of methods for assessing the value of certain types of knowledge. If it is something purely related to cultivation, like a particular technique, then it shall be assessed on the combination of its realm and how it compares to others of the same realm. As an example, if a technique performs at the level of the sixth realm while being in the first, it would naturally have boundless value, but the opposite is complete and utter trash that needs to be discarded with utmost haste, before it can somehow damage the rest of our techniques with its incompetence.”

“Harsh, but I would do the same provided that the gap was smaller. With a technique that bad, I would actually want to investigate and study it, to figure out how it wastes so much energy.”

“In that case, we will instead direct all such techniques to you in the future, Ascendant,” the Chen Patriarch said, though even he wasn’t sure whether he was just joking or not, “Next is information relating to particular places or groups, that might only have relevance if one is in geographical proximity to it. We have to judge it based on our ability to access it, as knowledge of a peerless divine artefact manifesting itself in the air above the Eastern Continent’s most eastern point is entirely useless to us and anyone that will be within reach of us, but the discovery of a valuable metal ore a few kilometres away can be utilised by nearly everyone, and will thus be far more easily traded and provide us with greater returns overall. With the presence of your spatial gateways, we might reassess the specific criteria, but the overall principle shall remain.”

Wei Yi nodded, “That is also sensible.”

“Since I have just mentioned local information, I might as well explain how we approach global information, or things that concern the world as a whole. For instance, fundamental knowledge regarding the nature of planar energy, something we’ve heard you have more than enough of, is useful anywhere in the Planar Continents, and so the value will need to be assessed based on how common it is, how useful it is, and how closely it relates to Dao… which you ought to also be familiar with.”

“I have good reason to believe that I am far more familiar with Dao than most are, so that is a fair enough statement,” she said, “After all, the manner in which I had opened up a new gate in your walls was based on a Dao.”

“Oh? Which one?”

“The Dao of Law. I think it’s the best. Feel free to categorise my opinion as the most significant of the pieces of information I can offer you.”

“I would very much rather not.”

“That’s fine too. I was joking about that, but I do think that the Dao of Law is a very effective one. You may want to consider it if you are ever going to study a Dao of your own, although the Dao of Wealth may be more suitable…” she saw him light up at the mere concept of such a Dao, so she had to add, “I don’t actually know if there is such a Dao at the moment, so you would need to complete it on your own if that is the kind of thing you are interested in. Otherwise, the heavens would fill in most things for you, which is beneficial if you don’t really care about developing the Dao itself.”

“With how long we have been around, the Dao of Wealth has to exist, so I will consider it… Oh, this ought to be considered part of the transaction, so I shall assess this as… No, if this is to be done, we must do this properly! Place your hand on the surface between us, and we shall begin our transaction with this as our first exchange.”

As he spoke, he also put his hand on the surface, his skin being touched by the energy flowing beneath, so Wei Yi followed not long after, having already taken in all of the physical components of the Spoken Word’s Truth and the World’s Truth arrays in the time she had.

“So long as you believe your words to be true, and they resonate with the truth of the world according to the nature of planar energy, that which you contribute shall raise a pillar of light. Once it exceeds my height, you have provided enough, and you may take the Great Families, the spatial stabilisation node, and the manuals for constructing these arrays, although you may not need them at this point, seeing as you have likely been scanning everything since you’ve come here. Come now, begin.”

“Alright.”

She put forward just a little bit of what she knew, and that pillar was instantly full. It shocked the Chen Patriarch, but after he reviewed that which she provided, he understood that it was best to go with it.