Path of the Ascendant

The sixth of the tenth month. Within the Yi District, things were rather tense for those in any position of power, although the common men and women were not entirely spared from this atmosphere. They were able to do little to prepare for either the promotion of a new Patriarch or the terrible horrors that would soon appear throughout the world, according to some woman in red robes and with red hair, so the impact was ultimately minimal.

Meanwhile, those in the higher echelons of society were feeling the pressure greatly, and thus they gathered in the district that the only one capable of assisting with the situation chose to reside in for the moment. That this happened to be the woman in red was only obvious to those that knew her.

“Are you sure you can’t just bump me up to the eighth realm? I have no clue whether there are any Primordial Deity domains near the Gang District, but if there is even one, I don’t think my second stage will be enough to handle it and keep everyone alive,” Gang Xiu Ling muttered, glancing with excessive regularity in the direction where her girlfriend was bathing, not far from the building they were conversing in, “I wish I had focused just a little more on actual cultivation, but I guess it’s a little bit too late now…”

“You’ve said this five times, now. If you had been doing anything other than just peeping on Lan Mu… actually, had you simply used the Yin Soul Yang Root, you would have been better off now.”

“Right, that would be an improvement…”

“Ascendant, how did you figure that this woman would make for a good replacement for the previous Gang Patriarch?” Shun Wang asked, quickly adding, “I understand that there might have been few other options, but…”

“Technically, my intention was not to obtain a powerful fighting force, but someone that would force the district’s stale traditions to change. She can find others to make better decisions.”

“Hey!”

“Prove me wrong for even a moment, and I will rescind my words.”

“Um… Can I not?”

“Can we speak about the Primordial Deities instead? Even with my best attempts to nurture my district’s people, using all of the resources at hand, there is no way that we will have anything resembling a fighting force within the week,” Chu Su, the Chu Patriarch, exclaimed while Gang Xiu Ling quietly shuffled away from the Ascendant, “Another Patriarch joining us will certainly help, but that is still only one man.”

“The Yi District could pick a woman, especially if they attempt to appease me or something. I won’t mind, so long as they don’t regret it.”

“Why would they do that?”

“I’d imagine word that I like women has gotten around by now, so, perhaps a female leader would be preferred by me.”

“Is that something you’d want?”

“Nah. If I was looking for a romantic partner – or even someone to fuck – then it would matter, but there is no need for someone to be a Matriarch to fit either category. Fitting into them would also do little to advance their ability as Matriarch, whether that is in terms of their cultivation or leadership ability, so it would be entirely pointless to pick anyone on this basis.”

Luo Na frowned, “Shouldn’t you stop them, then? I can see their list of selections featuring quite a few women famed for little more than their attractiveness. In fact, I think one is currently within an adult establishment of sorts.”

“Then they have made a mistake, or at least they believe this to be the case. It isn’t necessary that those without accomplishments up to this point will lack them completely, but who knows at this point… I don’t really know what every single person in the world is capable of, nor what they will end up accomplishing, so there is no good reason not to give people the chance. In the worst case scenario, I’ll just say that someone else is the Patriarch or Matriarch, then allow people to make of that what they will.”

The Luo Matriarch shrugged and leaned back, staring up at the ceiling while simply basking in the plentiful planar energy surrounding all of them.

“What about the safety of our districts?”

“Chu Su, you have the highest chance of reaching the eighth realm within the next few months, maybe weeks if you manage to make full use of what we have. Unfortunately, you claim to not have any additional materials, and I have already used everything I could from the raw materials of Testament, which cannot be directly used to advance to the fourth stage or beyond, not to mention the eighth realm. That leaves us with nothing, unless there is something that is escaping the majority of the Yi City Web and my divine sense,” Wei Yi said, glancing completely unsubtly at Chu Su, who was unable to meet her gaze and ended up joining Luo Na in staring at the ceiling.

She was aware that he had withheld some materials for his and his district’s use, but even if she took all of them and refined them into pills for her own use, then it would be barely sufficient to push her to a potential breakthrough a little later on. This was not enough for her, nor for the world.

As such, she didn’t bother to force him to give up his things, instead waiting for the choice of the Yi District while she sat around in a rented structure, although she could have just requisitioned it permanently with her power and control over the Yi District. Strictly speaking, she couldn’t be said to be a Master of Yi City while the Shi, Fu, Huang and Ling Districts weren’t within her control, as she chose not to waste time managing them while she travelled around and ensured that each district already supported by her was in the best state possible.

The Ascendant spread techniques to everyone that had the mental space to absorb them, supported everyone’s cultivation by spreading her physique abilities throughout the districts and ensuring that all available planar energy allocation was always active and being used by someone, somewhere. It led to quite a few breakthroughs, some to the sixth realm, a few to the seventh, but it was not good enough. To truly advance, the eighth realm was required, for it would push the Planar Continents forth greatly.

Once the power of the eighth realm was available in the world, then the seventh realm would become as common as the sixth realm was now, and as the fifth realm was mere months ago.

Ideally, this would happen under her observation and under her control, but she suspected that this would not occur like this for as long as it was even possible for things to go awry. Either there was an expert in the outside world, or she would simply be unable to progress quickly enough before the Primordial Deities would overcome them.

There was also the problem of the parallel between empowering the world and empowering the Primordial Deities. Since the increase in planar energy allocation would rise with every step into the realms of infinity, it would be best if she was the one to attain the eighth realm within the next few hours, as any Primordial Deities that emerged as a result would be opponents that she could reasonably attempt to handle, whereas the current Patriarchs and Matriarchs would be too weak in comparison to such an ancient force.

It also had to be noted that, just as dragons, phoenixes and qilins had different forms of cultivation as a result of their natural traits, Primordial Deities were described as lacking the typical structures that cultivators would construct. They had their equivalent of the imperfect rift, a pure spring of energy bound specifically to their path, but no marks, halos, or even a proper core. For that reason, they were said to be bound to the eighth realm no matter what they wished to do, for surpassing it and reaching true infinity via the ninth realm would require something to stabilise their springs of energy, and it was something that they did not have the ability to attain.

As if in exchange for this absolute limit, each Primordial Deity was significantly stronger than a normal cultivator in the eighth realm. The Master of Yi City had himself been very powerful in comparison to usual eighth realm cultivators, and even he struggled to face them alongside them.

Still, so long as humanity was in the eighth realm, then the Primordial Deities would be slightly less dangerous, and could be held back for long enough to allow others to benefit. If the one to break through was away from Yi City, and had no interest in working with them… then she would be greatly distressed. This wouldn’t be the end of the world by any margin, but it would cause a great deal of trouble and stress to her and everyone that she needed to manage.

To a certain extent, it was a bit of an annoyance for all of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs to gather around her and sit alongside her instead of doing anything useful, but the difference between actively cultivating elsewhere and here wasn’t too significant. Both she and the leaders of the districts needed more than just the natural quantity of planar energy in the world to make any significant progress in their cultivation, so they might as well linger here and be available to depart at any moment to the place where the Primordial Deities emerge.

“Hm? It seems like they’re finally coming up… Lan Mu, wait for me…”

“I think she’d love to have the opportunity to do so once in a while, but do whatever you want,” Wei Yi pushed her away and stood up, folding her arms as the figure from the Yi District entered their room.

“Ascendant, I have been told we have a candidate. Would you like to follow me to them?” the figure was a woman in the third realm, not part of any particular group or faction in the Yi District, but very clearly a member of the Yi family. Her red hair and silver eyes would have been striking had she not been standing right before Wei Yi’s crimson mane and gemstone-like irises.

From what she paid attention to, it appeared that they chose to send a woman deliberately, which did not provide her the confidence she would have liked, but it was fine. Even if they selected the most competent of their guardians and let her bring them up to the seventh realm, they would be incapable of attaining the eighth realm faster than either the Ascendant or Chu Su, whose realm was currently higher.

As such, the difference between the most and least competent candidate for the role of Patriarch was actually smaller than it might seem.

“I was told to guide you here. If there is something else, you should speak with them, as I…”

“You’re a waitress at a local establishment, I know. Still, you did well reaching this far without much support, especially when the dancers working there failed to attain the second realm with more support from the owners. Anyhow, return to your duties if they don’t have anything else to do, and if you ever wish to depart and are not permitted to, my Arbiters can ensure that you aren’t troubled.”

“R-Really? I, uh… thank you, Ascendant. I’ll go now.”

She almost ran off as soon as she said that, and Wei Yi wasn’t able to understand all that much about her mental state even with her ability to peer into her mind. This was rather fantastic, even, and since she knew that she would be able to observe the woman’s situation from anywhere within Yi City, she wasn’t too concerned about her suffering as a result of this extremely brief interaction. It was already unlikely enough for anyone to dare attack or harm her while the Ascendant and her Arbiters were in the district and actively watching over it, but the extra layer of security was nice.

‘Not that I care too much for her. As things are now, it is very likely that there will be many losses before the Primordial Deities can be held back, and even more before they are completely subdued – if that ever even happens,’ Wei Yi sighed, stepping into the building she had been led to.

There, the guardians of the Yi District were sweating visibly while they stared at the doorway.

From the presence of one other person there, who was positioned several steps away from any of the others, it would have been obvious to anyone who they had selected. A man, looking like he was around thirty years of age at most, was standing with a straight back and even straighter legs, perhaps attempting to resemble a plank of wood or some pillar in the room. His energy was in the sixth realm, although he was only in the first stage that seemed to have been achieved recently.

Some of the district’s resources were clearly expended for the purpose of raising his cultivation, so they had some reason to believe he would be a good choice.

One of the guardians said, “Ascendant. This is-”

“I’m sure he can explain his own name and identity. If you wouldn’t mind.”

The man looked to the guardians, who remained silent for long enough that he must have had enough time to gather his thoughts and decide on how he would proceed. He took a step forward, his figure managing to remain entirely straight, and performed the slightest of bows.

“I am Yi Lang, a member of the Yi District’s guard. I don’t think we’ve met prior to this,” he said to her, meeting her gaze.

“Probably not. What realm were you in a week ago, Yi Lang?”

“I… I was in the peak of the fourth realm, Lady Ascendant.”

“Just Ascendant is fine. Since the guardians have chosen you, it appears that you are the Yi District’s choice, but do you believe that you can lead the Yi District, and is it something that you wish to do? If the answer is yes, then do share with me the plans you have for the district, and the kinds of things you wish to do with it while it remains under your control.”

“To be frank, I had no idea that I would be in this position a week prior, but, now that I am here, I do believe that I have the ability to do a sufficiently good job. I know little about managing so many people, but I had been the leader of a small squad prior to this. I made sure that all my men were in a good place, helped them train, and made sure that they never fell behind a number of the other squads,” Yi Lang said, his gaze shifting slightly as his memories occupied his focus, “There was quite a bit of competition among the squads, although there wasn’t much of a purpose for it when we first had no real threats, and then the Great Families observing everything and leaving us with only common thugs…”

“Yi Lang, focus on-” one of the guardians failed to finish the sentence when he noticed Wei Yi’s gaze upon him.

“Don’t interrupt while your chosen Patriarch is talking. I had the impression that respect towards authority was valued by this district, and yet its guardians keep failing to adhere to that. Seems a little odd to me, but who am I to complain about such things?”

The guardians might have commented that she was one of the few that did have the ability to complain and change whatever she wanted for the moment, as her power allowed her to overcome anyone that would want to stop her, but all of them managed to restrain themselves. On one hand, they didn’t want to give her ideas, and on the other, they understood that bringing more attention to this would make it even more difficult to have any influence over their chosen candidate, as an annoyed Patriarch and Ascendant could easily remove them from the equation entirely.

“Um, so, I would like to encourage everyone to train and improve at the things that they are best at. There are plenty of techniques in the district’s libraries already, but more harmless and effective techniques need to be available to everyone, not just the upper members of the families. After all, that which assists people of the district, it will assist the district as a whole.”

“Fair enough, but do not forget that a number of techniques are not suitable for most to cultivate due to their complexity. Given that I will already be sharing most of what I have with you and the people, I will modulate that to a certain extent, but some techniques available in the libraries ought to be provided only once a cultivator already understands the principles behind simpler methods and skills,” Wei Yi said.

“I will note that.”

“By the way, guardians, if you know anything about a child by the name of Yi Dongfang… No, it doesn’t matter. Just make sure that the discovery of the Broken Sky Brand is attributed to him, not to Yi Juan.”

“Who-”

“Just do it and fuck off. I’ll be bringing your Patriarch up to a proper realm, and you are not needed for this whatsoever. The impression you’ve given me is also rather unfortunate, to say the least, so before you get the chance to worsen that impression, it would be best if you returned to the things you should be doing as guardians.”

They got the message quickly enough and left, though a subtle quantity of killing intent – at least, it was subtle from her perspective – certainly expedited the process.

Thus, she was left alone with this Yi Lang, who did seem like a reasonable enough person so far. Had she come across him as an aspiring Patriarch prior to the War of Ascendancy and everything related to it, she would have found his platform to be a little unlikely to win, for the Yi District was needlessly fond of adhering to its tiered society of servants, lower, middle and then upper members of the Yi family, but it would have had more use than now. With her archive being open to all, and numerous concepts already being shared with everyone imaginable, there was far less use for the people of the Yi District to visit the district’s libraries and get books that they would need to slowly read through and understand.

As long as the idea was good, though, there was always the possibility of coming up with more decent ideas, so she wouldn’t bother explaining to him exactly what was and wasn’t feasible in the current age. He could figure that out on his own.

“I wouldn’t want to be impolite-”

“Do whatever. Politeness doesn’t matter to me, but rather what you do and say.”

“Uhm, then, might I ask whether that killing intent is normal for you? It seemed immense despite your primary enemy being defeated.”

“That… you’re not quite on point there, Yi Lang. Think of it this way – I am rather angry about quite a few things in this world, and the Great Leeches were the human-made manifestation of some of those things. When they’re gone, that problem is gone, at least for now, but it also leaves me with nothing more than the world itself to be angry at…” she sighed, “It’s a little difficult to direct that anger at anything in particular, especially when I cannot have absolute certainty that there is an entity by the name of the heavens, or that there is much intelligent activity outside the Planar Continents to begin with. I have my suspicions about certain things, of course, but that is all I can have until I receive some proper evidence.”

“I, uh, think I understand. Should I prepare, somehow?”

“Nah, sit down on the floor. It’ll only take a moment- actually, no, don’t do that here. I suspect that some people will be upset if this place gets destroyed, so let’s move to the outside.”

He hadn’t had the time to sit down, so he just straightened his back and legs again and followed her. They stepped outside of the warehouse that the guardians had chosen to occupy for whatever reason, and the Ascendant brought him to the largest open space within the nearest mile, an open square of the district emptied by the fires caused by the Great Leeches.

There, he was able to sit down with his legs crossed and his hands upon his knees, an array appearing all around him from the energy of the Ascendant’s killing will. A moment of observation was completely insufficient for him to absorb any significant part of it, so he shut his eyes and allowed the Ascendant to do as she wished. Had she wanted to harm him in some manner, then she would have been able to do so without any difficulty, and if she wanted him to know how and what she was doing, then she would have informed him.

It would take a short while for energy to condense from only the natural planar energy of the world, so in addition to simply maximising the quantity of energy being drawn towards Yi Lang’s position, Wei Yi had to provide just a drop of her own oblivion essence.

Previously, with her sixth realm energy, it would have taken some distillation and weakening of the energy in order to allow anyone even the slightest of hopes of refining it, but now that it had changed so significantly, this was made more difficult. This was where the array came in, with numerous other arrays incorporated into it in order to allow for oblivion essence to enter the outer regions then be melted down into unbound planar energy of high density of the high sixth or low seventh realm.

Both should be sufficient for the future Yi Patriarch to cultivate, and if he lacked the ability to handle the power of the seventh realm, then it would be a little dangerous for him to attempt reaching the seventh realm. A stable cultivation method and body should be able to handle far greater quantities of power than what was required for any form of stable progress, and since he was a guard captain that had worked for a very long time, he should be able to manage even if his own technique had never reached a proper level.

“If this hurts, then you better endure it until it has the chance of killing you in an instant. Before then, I have either understood the state of your body and accounted for it, or I believe that I will be able to maintain your life, so anything you do will just fuck it up. Do you understand that?” the Ascendant confirmed before she began.

“I do.”

“Good. For the record, the planar energy will still be influenced by my cultivation, so it is likely to hurt. However, this will be a purely positive thing, so don’t complain afterwards.”

She wasn’t saying this to prevent him from doing so, but mostly to inform him that there was little benefit in speaking to her about it. Throughout the reach of her part of the Yi City Web, there were plenty of those who didn’t like her, or had something to complain about when it came to her, so she had long gotten used to ignoring such people’s words when there was nothing that she could do, or actively wished to do about their problems with her.

Luckily, guards were usually a little more used to physical and mental stress alike than the average person, and this former captain was no exception as he simply nodded and allowed her to do her work, which took the form of providing the smallest of droplets to the array so that it could begin.

That droplet rapidly diffused through the outer portions of the array and was forcefully scattered and dispersed, lowering its density more and more while enhancing the ambient planar energy density for a little while. With it, Yi Lang should have enough time to adjust to the raised quantity of planar energy, and have an easier time absorbing the crystalline form of diluted oblivion essence that he would soon receive. It took some time for the oblivion essence to get anywhere near the state of ordinary planar energy in the seventh realm, and it would take even longer for it to descend to the point that it would be usable in the sixth realm.

As such, the Ascendant kept much of her attention on the Planar Continents themselves, as well as anything caught within the Yi City Web. She had no clue what would be occurring far beyond it, so it was difficult to prepare for threats from there, but she could monitor most people of Yi City and would certainly step in to stop them if they were up to no good, even if it meant interrupting the array.

For the moment, the biggest danger was an outside entity reaching the eighth realm and being opposed to the people of Yi City, and, most importantly for her at this moment, the Arbiters and the Ascendant that leads them. Aside from the sheer power they would attain at that point, far rivalling that of the fragment of a Primordial Deity she had managed to defeat at the Bao District, their breakthrough would release said Primordial Deities earlier than intended, even if that would only amount to a few hours now.

Stopping them and harnessing their excess energy would be ideal, but if it was impossible, telling those would be at greatest risk of a Primordial Deity attack to either flee – if the Primordial Deity would appear too close to their lands – or set up defences – if there was enough room to avoid the direct power of the ancient entities – in preparation for this event, and inform all of Yi City that it would be best if they put up their guard for any other Primordial Deities that might emerge. She wasn’t sure she knew of all that would come to be threats, and all that could emerge, so until a semblance of certainty was gained, caution was not just advisable, but highly necessary if she was to be able to harness the situation to her own advantage, or at least limit her disadvantage.

Her energy flowed into the future Yi Patriarch after some time, his meridians clearly struggling at first and taking most of the process to adjust, but the rise in his cultivation was immediate. A second of stabilisation brought on by the influx of power ensured his first stage wouldn’t collapse under any pressure, and the aura of the second stage rushed out of his body not long after.

The third stage came after a minute, and the fourth came after three, with the fifth being the first stage in which there was not only significant risk to Yi Lang himself, but also his cultivation. Wei Yi’s planar energy retained the property of incinerating and enhancing the body as it went through the future Patriarch, meaning that enough of it could outright kill him if he wasn’t able to handle it, but the rush through the stages didn’t give him much of an opportunity to stabilise his cultivation or get used to his growing power.

Her physique abilities were able to keep him safe, but her attention was forced to the extreme north when a great wave of energy hastened from there, causing her heart to skip a beat as it adjusted to the sudden increase in energy density.

It wasn’t anything like her oblivion essence, but it was unmistakably belonging to the eighth realm. She didn’t know what the technique creating it was – there were similarities to a number of those that she had seen so far, but not exactly identical to any of them, nor the particular cultivation of anyone she knew – but since it came from outside Yi City and lacked the distinctive traits of her own techniques, the chances of this being the breakthrough of an opponent was very high.

That there was a sudden rumbling of earth and the appearance of two spots from which immense energy surged, one near the Chu District and one off to the north, slightly west of Paragon, made it clear that the evening was likely to be the last peaceful one that Yi City would enjoy in quite a long time.

The Primordial Deities were awakening.