Path of the Ascendant

The man landed on the ground, a few metres from the Ascendant, a thin smile upon his face as he offered the slightest of nods in response.

“That is my name. That it is still remembered is a good sign, I hope.”

“Sorry, Ascendant, this… that name… it couldn’t be the same person that I am thinking of, could it?” Chu Su questioned, beginning quietly but quickly failing to control his voice and talking loudly enough that even a man without a hint of cultivation would have certainly been able to distinguish each and every word.

Still, Kong Shi Meng did not speak, and left things to the Ascendant to handle as she wished – or so she presumed, for his mind was impossible to read with her methods.

“… Maybe,” she could hardly offer any kind of definitive answer after seeing the man for the first time, so she turned to him and stared at him without any attempt to hide her attempts to spot any oddities or discrepancies in any aspect of him, “I would ask whether you could give me one of your titles, but… that figure in the spatial realm I own – was it you?”

“Although you are vague, I think you refer to the time when I reinforced an array of a spatial realm at risk of invasion. It was a hasty act, not one I should have done from a long-term perspective, but I had to risk my existence for it.”

“In that case, how are you alive?”

“I… can’t be sure. All I know is that I do exist, and that I have to protect the things that I had worked to create. I also know that I shouldn’t be here, and so what I can do is limited.”

“Is that why you didn’t just kill Primordial Nature?”

While they spoke, the Ascendant had carefully attempted to peer into the man’s dantian and determine the state of his cultivation, for she knew what technique Kong Shi Meng had practiced and what realm he had been in, at least at the last time he had been seen in the Planar Continents, but it proved difficult in multiple ways. Even when she did get her divine sense in, all she saw was a series of white clouds shrouding an opening, from which the slightest of glimmers of light emerged at all times.

On one hand, this was extremely odd, but on the other, the form of the opening was akin to that produced by the realm of Eternal Gate, so even if the gate was obstructed in some manner, there should have been an infinite source of ninth realm planar energy within there, ready to be used.

“My impact has to be minimal, and so I use a barrier and not a stronger offensive method. In excess, I would endanger myself and the world in one go.”

“Why?”

“There is a limit upon me. I think I have the attention of something that does not wish for me to act in certain ways, and I have not found a method of dealing with it just yet. I do not know if it is even possible, so I shall instead do my best and let the next best option take care of the threat with my assistance. From my observation so far, you are exactly that.”

“Just leaving everything for me to handle… What about the Truth of the Universe?”

“What about it?”

“Did you leave it to someone like me deliberately, or did it end up in my hands by some cosmic coincidence?”

“I left it to one that would have a chance of succeeding where I could not. I left it to a person who would be the greatest of their generation, who would have the talent and intellect necessary to soar above all their peers,” Kong Shi Meng said, his relatively flat tone changing to a passionate one briefly, “I could not be certain when I found find the one I sought, but as the Truth of the Universe resides with you, I can confirm that I had found the most suitable of people. Your comprehension is far broader and deeper than I could have hoped.”

“Again, what exactly do you refer to? My knowledge in general, my Dao, or something else?”

His voice returned to normal by this point, “Everything. You may be aware that the greater one’s realm, the more they can perceive about the world around them, and I can sense how you stand out amidst the rest of the world. I am sure that you can succeed.”

Wei Yi sighed, as the things he said were true enough, but also gave her no ability to decipher whether or not he was indeed the true Kong Shi Meng, or someone posing as him. Neither option was particularly reasonable, as the Master of Yi City should have died long ago while there should be none in the ninth realm to even attempt to imitate him, and yet one had to be true. This couldn’t be a simple illusion, as her various senses would see right through at least one aspect of it.

There was also the fact that he was very vague with most of the things he said, meaning that he could easily be making everything up on the spot and simply getting it right.

‘I don’t even know whether I should be this suspicious of him, but… Actually, no, I should be, even if he is truly Kong Shi Meng. For all we know, there is something wrong with his state that he either cannot explicitly reveal, or doesn’t know of himself, and close attention will increase my chances of spotting it and dealing with it in a timely manner,’ the Ascendant decided, mentally glancing towards the Kong Prison Realm and checking on Yi Shi Ming’s state. She would be of use in identifying the man that might be her son, but as she was still busy and seemed to be struggling enough already, she chose not to bother the spatial spirit.

Since she would not do anything Kong Shi Meng suggested without thinking over it all first, and since she could be relatively sure that her mind would get taken over even if this man was the strongest entity in the ninth realm that could exist, she wouldn’t lose much from waiting a little longer.

“So, what do you suggest I do now? My strength is lacking to combat the Primordial Deities right now.”

“Strength alone is not the only thing that matters. Planar energy at all realms can interact with any other realm, as you might have learned yourself. In the first realm, it is possible to externalise energy, so even those kinds of barriers are dependent on one’s own effort,” Kong Shi Meng said, “Nature has strengths and weaknesses. Understand them, and you will grow in the process.”

“I don’t suppose you’d care to tell me the answers so that I could protect the world a bit more quickly, would you?”

“I may not have watched your every step prior to this, but I know for a fact that none could get as far as you without learning and understanding things on your own. Only in this way will you truly be able to reach your peak, no matter your pursuit.”

“That much is true,” she nodded, “Well then, will you at least ensure that the districts are safe? Will you tell me about what you got up to a millions years ago? It’s fine if you don’t want to appear in front of others, if that is against whatever restrictions are upon you, but I imagine that there is a lot to be heard about the Planar Continents a million years ago. Some of it might help me take down the Primordial Deities sooner.”

“I will say what I can, and what I know. Of course, I will also protect these lands, but I can only do so much.”

“Are you ever going to be able to do more?”

“…” he did not speak for quite a while, but the message was carried across nonetheless. From his expression, which remained minimal – much like his mother’s rather subtle expressions, though that was to be expected – it was clear that he wasn’t too happy about this either, which created as many problems as it solved. On one hand, at least he wasn’t a complete heartless bastard willing to let the world burn while he did nothing, but on the other, there were far too many limitations upon him for the Ascendant to feel particularly comfortable about it.

If there was something that was actively restricting Kong Shi Meng, there should be no reason that they wouldn’t be able to restrict the Ascendant, and so she was in danger. Alternatively, if something was restraining him specifically, then it might well end up affecting her as well, since she would be advancing Kong Shi Meng’s goals.

There was also the chance of him harming her as a result of some of the information that he had failed to disclose for one reason or another. It could even be entirely accidental, not that it would make it any better, but that did force her to pay a greater degree of attention to everything he was doing, as well as everything happening around him. So long as this didn’t prevent him from continuing to create and support such barriers, it wouldn’t be too bad, but it was still a major nuisance.

“Fine, let’s take care of the district before doing anything else. I’ll also pay attention to Primordial Nature’s activity while I’m at it,” Wei Yi said, turning to Chu Su, “You ought to help me move some of the houses and figure out a better place for them. Until Primordial Nature is removed entirely, letting people remain close is far too dangerous, in my opinion.”

“Very well. I have some notion of where things could go, but I would rather leave the moving itself to you. My techniques rely on the element of wood, and, frankly, I don’t trust it right now.”

“My barrier will prevent the Primordial Deity’s influence upon your power, but you may do as you wish. I have a certain sense of the state of the other Primordial Deities, so I shall alert you once I observe an emergence.”

Thus, they went to work, and hours passed quickly.

 

Moving half of a district onto the other side of the district, effectively nudging the entirety of the Chu District over to the south-east, was not the easiest of tasks, and the other districts didn’t make it any easier. The buildings they moved were able to fit in the space left by the Fu and Chen Districts, the former being primarily over to the west, and slightly to the south, and the latter being directly south, but that didn’t mean the gap didn’t suddenly shrink to almost nothing.

Of course, as it was the Ascendant’s will, the Patriarchs couldn’t do much, even the Fu Patriarch, who was not part of the Arbiter’s alliance. They could complain however much they wished to, and it wouldn’t matter whatsoever.

The thought of simply merging the districts did come to mind, both for Chu Su and Wei Yi, but both rejected it for their own reason. Obviously, the Chu Patriarch would not wish to suddenly lose control of his district and have two others get involved in managing it, nor did he think that it would be a good idea for the three districts to merge when their systems and practises differed greatly. The Ascendant shared that opinion, and knew that there had to be a number of different cultures and districts in order for Yi City to thrive, as mixing up the mastery of the wood element, whatever the Fu District did to obtain such large quantities of resources, and the greed of the Chen District would be unlikely to lead to the best possible outcome.

It didn’t help that the Fu Patriarch was very reluctant to speak with her, or get anywhere near her. Her divine sense was able to reach him and examine much of his lands, so it wasn’t like there was much that she didn’t know even without his contribution. In fact, his actions only made her want to inspect his lands all the more, as it seemed likely that she would be able to discover the secret of the Fu District’s wealth if she chose to look deeply enough, thus benefitting herself and Yi City as a whole with whatever she found.

For now, though, things were calm enough – one Primordial Deity was apparently happy to sit over at the north and burn away, while the other was temporarily sealed by Kong Shi Meng and could only act within a circular domain – so she wouldn’t do the unnecessary just yet. Maybe later.

While they were busy relocating structures, Chu Su approached her and asked using his divine sense, “You have more experience with the Master of Yi City, so I have to rely on your insight. Is that man truly who he claims to be, or should we be on our guard?”

“No idea. I’d need to speak with him far more,” she replied simply.

“That is not… encouraging,” Chu Su said, glancing in the direction of the figure warily, “I shall enforce a barrier of my own around the one set up by him, as I do not wish to see my district end in my lifetime.”

“Go ahead. So long as I am free to spare my energy on such matters, I will also keep a barrier up to prevent any kind of accidents, whether it is some kind of deliberate sabotage or something out of his control… That being said, I do think that you are making a bit of a mistake discussing something so close to him. He appears to be in the ninth realm, and his divine sense should not only be able to reach far enough to detect our conversation, but it should be powerful enough to discern exactly what you are saying. He may miss out on my side of the conversation, though, depending on his ability to see through my unique traits.”

“Ah. I will admit, I must have overlooked such a detail. I shall return to work, then.”

He hastened off to shift some more buildings very quickly, with both of them paying attention in the direction of Kong Shi Meng, who did not show any signs of noticing or caring either part of the interaction. Perhaps he hadn’t even been paying attention – a possibility, given that she didn’t detect his divine sense anywhere – or perhaps he couldn’t be bothered with such things. The latter certainly seemed likely, given his temperament so far.

If he didn’t bring it up, then they didn’t need to bring it up either, and instead focus on more important matters.

For instance, the matter of the Primordial Deities, who the Ascendant was constantly tempted to call the Primordial Leeches due to the familiarity of the latter term and the fact that they could be described as leeching off the world in a certain manner. When their work was nearly done, Kong Shi Meng appeared beside her and spoke.

“Primordial Energy and Entropy are emerging. Look north and south, Wei Yi.”

Not a moment after he said it, the air trembled as two waves came from the north and south. Notably, the northern wave was significantly weaker and subtler than the other one, but both had a very discernible nature to them that allowed her to confirm his words.

From the south, there was a wave akin to the purest of planar energy, the true form of planar energy. Physique, bloodline, killing intent, spiritual will and the five elements came together as one, forming a certain impact that could be felt anywhere in the world. The power of the five elements, or, rather, the planar energy that coalesced from them, was the strongest presence, making Wei Yi ponder whether there were also a Primordial Blood, Primordial Physique and Primordial Mind. The records were rather vague on the Primordial Deities, even in the archives of the Great Leeches.

She had a suspicion on where Primordial Energy would appear, and sure enough, it was exactly where she thought it would be – the Qiang District, land of plentiful planar stone mines.

It manifested within the earth, thus being at the edge of her divine sense’s reach, but it was also near to the north-east of the district, just like Primordial Nature decided to make its appearance to the north-east of the Chu District. Most likely, this was coincidental, not some kind of pattern that could be followed, as Primordial Inferno appeared in the middle of some outside nations and tribes, and Entropy… was somewhere.

The waves of decay and complete disintegration were clear, even if they were far weaker, but she could not nail down a single spot where Entropy resided at the moment. From the behaviour of Primordial Nature, one could guess that Primordial Deities liked to claim territory first, developing it before spreading too far out, so Entropy should be doing something similar.

And yet, she still failed to find traces of a land where things decayed excessively.

“Is it supposed to be difficult to find Entropy? Also, why just Entropy, and not Primordial Entropy?”

“Their names are what they are. They are known to all that know of them, and it does not appear to be something that scholars question,” Kong Shi Meng answered her second question first, “There are some abnormal circumstances with Entropy, so it is likely that locating it shall be more challenging. However, that does also mean that you shall not have to worry about it as much as the other Primordial Deities.”

As interesting as the first answer was, mostly in the way he chose to phrase it, Wei Yi shrugged and said, “Good. Will you seal Primordial Energy?”

“You will need to be present to strike first and establish a certain standard of resistance. It is effectively one stage lower than Primordial Nature, so you ought to find the confrontation easier in that regard. Energy is also something you understand better than the element of wood.”

That was also true. Other than the Earth Dao, which was at Full Success after she had bested Primordial Earth’s fragment, the rest of her elemental Dao were at the Minor Achievement stage. Technically, they were boosted by her other Dao, especially the unknown stage of the Dao of the Heavens, but as shown by the fact that the vision state of the four wasn’t yet attained by her, there was a significant difference in power and understanding. Just because the understanding of grander overarching Dao boosted the power of the five elemental Dao, she wouldn’t automatically comprehend everything there was to know about them.

Her Planar Dao was at Full Success, so when it came to dealing with Primordial Energy, she was bound to have more understanding of the foe she faced than when she stood against Primordial Nature.

“Alright then, the rest of the moving process can be done by Chu Su. We-”

“I can bring you towards the Qiang District instantly. Stand still for a moment,” Kong Shi Meng interrupted her plans, placing his hand upon her shoulder and shutting his eyes for the briefest of moments.

All of a sudden, her surroundings vanished, and ancient stone took their place. Light was absent from the scene, so only her divine sense was able to make sense of the things around her, but before any of that, she wanted to understand how she ended up here. Obviously, she wasn’t in the ninth realm and couldn’t understand all of the intricacies of that realm, but she should have still been able to detect something – anything, for that matter – in between the hand being placed upon her shoulder in the Chu District and being removed in the depths of the Qiang District.

It was even more extreme than her own movement method, which permitted her to cut out any movement between departure and arrival, but it was by no means perfect. She still touched the chains of Law and shifted her location based on that, so ripples could be detected via various means. Kong Shi Meng did not seem to do anything even remotely similar.

Within a single instant, they shifted positions as easily as if the very world itself nudged them over.

“You have your own capabilities, but this is most efficient to get you to the location of Primordial Energy. From here, you ought to know where to go.”

“… Is this your fourth realm movement method? Well, I don’t know whether it can even be called that, but this has to be some kind of technique, right?” the Ascendant asked a question that might be seen as being rather obvious and unnecessary. However, she had to make sure for her own sake, since his action was a little too incomprehensible even with the kinds of ridiculous things that she had accomplished on her own.

“Yes. Planar energy is universal, so transposing our position from one place to another is simple.”

Despite the vague explanation, and partly even due to it, her reaction to this was significantly more positive than if he had proclaimed something else. For instance, if he stated that he had controlled the heavens, it would be difficult for her to do anything about it, but she had plenty of familiarity with techniques, and maybe even more with planar energy. Thus, she immediately got to deciphering it.

He said that planar energy was universal, and so it was clearly involved in the process of transposition. On its own, that didn’t mean much, but there were only so many things that could be done with planar energy alone, especially energy without an element – which she presumed to be involved due to Kong Shi Meng’s typical techniques from the days of the founding of Yi City. The first idea she had was to encase herself entirely in particles of planar energy, then somehow trick the world itself into believing that she was meant to be somewhere completely different by relying on the nature of planar energy being infinite and based upon the allotted density of any area.

This was something that could, potentially, be achieved via Law, for the function of planar energy was connected to the Law of the world, but she wasn’t sure how to achieve this just yet. Her comprehension of planar energy would need to reach a slightly greater level, surpassing the natural functions of the world sufficiently to permit her to play with them as the heavens themselves might be able to influence that which they wished.

On that note, raising her own attainment in a Dao above that of the heavens might be sufficient to allow her whatever level of control she needed, as, in theory, the restrictions to certain powers would be applied to the world via the will of the heavens. Their Dao impose how the abilities of those in the Planar Continents ought to function, so if the Ascendant had greater control over any of the Dao, she should be able to take away that control – though it was unlikely to be that simple, nor particularly easy. Aside from the fact that even her natural affinity for the Dao of Law had not yet managed to bring her forward by a single stage since she reached the limit of what the heavens knew, there was also the matter of control over the world itself.

Spatial spirits were more powerful within their own domains than cultivations of the same realm, as they were directly linked to their spatial realms. The exact difference caused by this was difficult to assess without being able to experiment with the will of the heavens directly, but she knew for a fact that she would need a significant enough difference in power and comprehension to win.

“Anyway, where is it?” the Ascendant asked, being forced to halt the contemplation as she couldn’t advance her Dao of Law instantly no matter how much she wanted to, hence being unable to test the theory.

“Directly ahead.”

“Alright. The more damage I am able to do, the smaller the area that it has to work with, and thus the less it can build up before I confront it at a later stage?”

“The barriers are not eternal, but the rest is as you say. The more of the Primordial Deity’s power you are able to expend, the easier it will be to contain it within a smaller area, limiting the damage it can do in the immediate future. However, after a certain amount of time, their power will overwhelm the world’s natural planar energy recovery, and then another barrier would need to be established… but it is not so straightforward when one deals with living, thinking beings.”

“I guess that they would learn what we’re doing and find some way to impair the creation of a barrier the second time that you attempt it, so even if you are successful, either the duration would be lessened, or the size would be increased.”

“That is correct. As such, do your best in one attempt, and become stronger quickly.”

Given his previous statements regarding strength, she understood that this did not include raw power alone, so she nodded and proceeded into the cave systems as quickly as possible. It had been a few minutes since Primordial Energy had emerged, but that had been enough for Primordial Nature to completely overwhelm her and Chu Su, nearly barging into the Chu District as if it owned the place.

Fortunately, it was rather easy to find due to the flow of energy within the caves. Everything flowed towards it, whether slowly or quickly, and so there hadn’t even been much point to asking Kong Shi Meng about it as she found Primordial Energy only a few seconds after she started the search – assisted to a great degree by her constant usage of her fourth realm movement method to skip out on walking through the lengthy cave passages. Its appearance was as one might expect.

A huge figure of pure planar light, though the inside of the figure rotated and churned with five slight shades that were barely visible through the outside mist. There were two slightly denser masses where eyes might be, but no trace of a mouth or nose.

With Primordial Nature, Wei Yi needed quite a while to decipher what would truly be effective against it, but here, she experienced a sudden yet rather unusual epiphany that led her to perform a single further movement until she appeared right before the Primordial Deity. It had a rapid reaction time, attacking far more quickly than even she might be able to had she been attacked instead, but she didn’t do anything that would require more than a single thought. Rather, the Ascendant simply concentrated the full power of her cultivation method on the space before her, forcing it to absorb that vast cloud of planar energy.

Had she been given a second outside of the world, to look at what she did and comment on it, she would have said that this never should have worked. A moment after, she would have disagreed.

From the moment she began to use the skill she had then called the Mysterious Character technique, she had the ability to absorb energy that was already bound to another, and although the entity before her was far more than any cultivator she had fought up to this point, the absolute basics were still the same. It had energy, this energy was planar energy at its core, and she could absorb such energy with her cultivation method and the power of Law, which she applied regardless of necessity.

Thus, a number of drops of energy surged into her dantian, bumping up her cultivation realm by just a little, and the Primordial Deity produced a noise that could only be described as a screech. In an instant, she damaged it far more than she had hurt Primordial Nature.

The next, a barrier was established, and she was thrown right out, leaving Primordial Energy with half the space that Primordial Nature had been able to obtain.

“Well done. Shall I bring you back?” Kong Shi Meng asked, his expression as still as before.