Path of the Ascendant

Roots, water, and hastily assembled barriers made up the majority of the Ascendant’s battle as the sun set and, slowly, began to rose over the horizon.

Just as the roots had proved to be effective upon the minions of the Primordial Deity, they affected the entity itself, and although Primordial Ocean was able to scatter and break the roots as they appeared, Wei Yi was still able to have a good portion of roots settle within the entity for long enough to have some effect.

She had not experienced the Primordial Deity’s Leech property so far, so she could not compare it to her own roots, but the latter certainly did not function on a percentage. Rather, the roots had a limited quantity of energy that they were able to draw from the entity they targeted, and most weren’t even able to return that energy to the central node, from where the Ascendant could easily put it to use again. As a result, the effect on Primordial Ocean was unfortunately limited, to the point that it was only as effective on it as the grey dust had been on Primordial Nature itself, wasting numerous hours.

As for the barriers, they had the purpose of negating the sheer destructive force of the tsunami waves being sent in her direction every second. It wasn’t necessary to stop them completely, only to deflect the impact and to ensure that the structures they would have hit did not collapse.

Obviously, she employed additional roots and flora to reinforce every structure that was suitable for her rather rough method – her mind was occupied by other things, so more precise manipulation of plant life was not viable in the slightest – but there was only so much that could be done even after the Shaper’s Grasp, Conqueror’s Eye and Elder Watcher were applied. She could only produce so much with her methods, and a seventh or eighth realm material was not yet within her capabilities.

‘Really, it should be, but my techniques are partially lacking thanks to lacking time and material to work with, at least when it comes to suitable methods,’ Wei Yi thought.

That thought had happened at some point before the battle altered once more, when both of them had figured out that things weren’t going particularly well, nor were especially likely to change without some external force. Both acted at once, to the extent of it being rather difficult to figure out whether one of them had started it or if they had just managed to identify the situation at the exact same time and simply match one another by accident. Whatever the case, both Wei Yi and Primordial Ocean had an idea, and carried it out.

Primordial Ocean’s idea arrived instantly, possibly being transported via the waters of the Primordial Deity. It was a figure that the Ascendant did not recognise, but she could tell that others did, and soon understood why.

It was a figure that was humanoid, almost resembling an elderly man with a lengthy beard and hair that merged together into a flowing length akin to the Primordial Deity’s own hair. When it first emerged, the figure almost seemed to be screaming at the skies, its attention unfocused and turned away from the battle, but some unheard command from Primordial Ocean forced its head down to face the Ascendant, some hint of humanoid eyes remaining within something resembling a skull.

“P-Patriarch!” a shout came from afar, as Shi Jing recognised the figure.

As the Ascendant had expected, Primordial Ocean did not simply sit in the middle of the Shi District without any purpose to its actions. Rather, it had occupied itself, or at least some part of its power, with conquering and altering one of the strongest presences in the district, and it now decided to unleash its creation. Perhaps the Patriarch had just completed the change, or maybe it just liked the timing.

The Ascendant’s response was similar, in that it involved a single individual coming onto the battlefield, except that her reinforcements were already present at the scene.

“Is that their Patriarch? In my eyes, he looks… even worse,” Jia Rong muttered, though most could still hear her, “Are you sure that this is someone that I am even able to handle? Wei Yi? Are you not even going to reply?”

“No. Get over there and hit him in the face.”

“Can he be saved?”

“Can you reverse time?”

Jia Rong got the point – and her surface-level thoughts indicated that she recalled how many people she had already slaughtered without giving them a chance to recover – and wanted to rush into the water, but she was unlikely to make much progress as she had no ability stand on water. Before she could get far, the Ascendant produced a vine and let it grab onto the former Patriarch, pulling him away from the water before what remained of his body had the chance to break it, throwing the body right towards Jia Rong.

Primordial Ocean glared at her through the foam, “What do you think you’re doing? Mortal thing, infusing the world with more abnormal stench won’t grant you victory.”

“I don’t give a fuck. I’ll fight you, and Jia Rong can fight the mockery you’ve made of this district’s Patriarch. Feel free to leave if you don’t want to, but something tells me that you don’t intend to do so,” Wei Yi replied, “Now, come at me, and let me devour your power as well! Let me purify this world of your influence!”

As always, her passionate words were followed by an eruption of killing will, which could never be exhausted even when it was drawn upon constantly and without hesitation. Her other abilities were already being utilised in full, and so that was all that she could do to boost her strength before jumping in. Given that Primordial Ocean was certain to try and gain an advantage to finish her off after their lengthy battle, it was imperative that she did not permit it to go past her, and so it was necessary to use everything she had.

She was concerned that her killing will would rush into the eighth realm, gain an even greater degree of control over her, and grow far beyond her ability to subdue to the extent that it would absolutely dominate her even in times when it was not at all helpful. However, this did not yet happen.

There was an obstruction of some kind before the eighth realm, and she was not inclined to seek out the nature of this obstacle as it offered her the chance to finally catch up to her killing will realm and match it, allowing her cultivation to stabilise perfectly. It would enhance her power, enhance her control, and possibly permit killing will to contribute to the other cultivation paths more effectively and allow them to grow at the same time.

‘Well, whatever will happen, I doubt the heavens will choose an outcome that benefits me. Ideally, I won’t need to rely upon them at all,’ the Ascendant thought for a moment.

 

Jia Rong, despite the length of time spent in the new world, had not fully acclimated to the constant combat that everyone around the Planar Continents seemed to love engaging in. She had spent some time in various training centres, mostly to experience them at least once, but she still had very limited practise in actual combat.

Right away, she recognised that this was not the case for her foe, a man that likely had the surname of Shi but would not be known as such any longer. This man, the former Patriarch of the District, still retained knowledge of combat, tactics and whatever else, whether through Primordial Ocean or his own body. When he was sent flying towards her, she could only respond with a straightforward punch to what had been his face, but the former Patriarch shifted in the air and moved to gather energy that Jia Rong had no ability to counter with energy of her own.

All that she could do was continue with the punch, and see how it would go.

‘I bet that Wei Yi would have appreciated a fighter being stuck in time far more than me…’ the demonic woman thought, though she shook that thought out of her head – mentally, for she couldn’t afford to move her head in reality, ‘No, I can do this. I can use my body, and I can hit things. That’s enough!’

Her fist struck the body of the former Patriarch, and his power was directed at her stomach, perhaps hoping to force her guts outside of her body and bring her to an early end. Both of them hit their target without much issue, for Jia Rong did not intend to put up her guard, while the former Patriarch had attempted to put up a few layers of water to block her fist but ultimately failed due to their lacking power.

The moment that his energy touched her, it faded or simply travelled around her, flowing past like she was a stone within a river. Even that would have affected the stone, but in this analogy the stone was also water repellent and completely immune to the water’s effect, so the result was that a vast wave of water-type energy instead burst into the district.

Much fell on its structures, sinking into their foundation and being consumed by Wei Yi’s roots, while the rest headed towards the remaining few living men and women. The latter were shielded or otherwise moved away by the dragons, saving both Jia Rong and Wei Yi the headache.

On the other hand, Jia Rong’s fist pushed into the fluid that made up most of the former Patriarch’s current body, and struck some invisible solid within. It managed to repulse her hand, forcing it back out of the liquid, but it also shook the former Patriarch, his form distorting and wobbling wildly, resembling a jelly more so than a common fluid. How such a thing occurred wasn’t clear, but what became overwhelmingly obvious after a few more strikes was that it had to have some importance, no matter how vague.

Even if it did not, that was for Wei Yi, not her, to decide.

 

The Ascendant might have been described as an avatar of nature had one first witnessed her in this battle. Roots spawned from every segment of land available, and their number overwhelmed even the quantity of energy she sent at the Primordial Deity. Of course, Primordial Ocean tried to fight back, but the situation quickly settled down to their previous stalemate.

“Wei Yi, have you noticed that this guy is constantly wobbling when I hit him?” Jia Rong’s voice reached her from the back.

‘I have, since I needed to pay attention to everything you did to minimize the damage to the land, but… I suppose this calls for another use of Law. Don’t know why I am always so reluctant to employ it, especially when I now have a great mass of energy concentrated below the earth,’ the Ascendant thought, raising both hands and conjuring a vast wall of wood just in time to block Primordial Ocean’s latest attack, ‘Why not. I’ve wanted to comprehend another Dao in a few minutes again.’

A wave of her hands led to the roots parting, letting her look upon Primordial Ocean without interference or interruption. As always, the entity looked horrendous by human standards, and it only seemed to get worse the longer they fought, but that wasn’t what she was paying attention to now.

Rather, she sought to find the most pivotal aspect of the entity, then crush it just like she extinguished Primordial Inferno.

Her first idea was to address the shape of the entity, for she already had experience with reverting a form of energy or matter to one that it should have been in. The entities created by it were maintained in their intended form by something within them, but whatever the source, it went against natural Law. Therefore, she had some power over it, and with Primordial Ocean being weakened a little after their conflict, it was the best time to attempt something against the Primordial Deity, though she wasn’t relying on this plan alone.

There were several different factors she could target, and this attempt was only the one she had successfully applied most recently. Already, she was seeking other chains to manipulate in order to accomplish her alternative plans.

“Water is a fluid that fits the shape of its container. You defy Law.”

The Ascendant’s words caused resonance with the world, but the power of Primordial Ocean collided with the rippling of chains and forced them to be nearly still. A faint jangle of chains could still be heard, but it would not be enough to crush the Primordial Deity into a useless puddle on the ground. It was a fact that the Primordial Deity appeared rather gleeful about.

“Your horrendous clanging should be put to an end, mortal thing. Your voice irritates me to no end. Begone!”

It produced a vast wave to sweep her away once more, as if this was the only technique available to Primordial Ocean, but Wei Yi wasn’t fazed.

‘I expected this much, so let’s attempt the next thing,’ she said to herself, raising her hand again, ‘Doing something that leans towards their nature, rather than trying to impose the natural world’s Laws upon them, is significantly easier, so… Fluidity, pooling together, siphoning power from another… When water behaves as water does, it ought to do so all the way, and thus Primordial Ocean ought to be one with the ocean of the continents…’

With another eruption of her killing will, as to subdue the power of the Primordial Deity, she called out, “Water mixes and converges, flowing towards the larger ocean. Now, do as you should, Leech of mankind.”

Her purpose was two-fold. Other than simply wishing for Primordial Ocean to behave according to her will, she believed that she would make the battle far simpler for her forces by removing the Primordial Deity’s influence from the rest of the Shi District. She didn’t even expect to solve the problem completely, as her Dao of Law was still lacking, but managing even one would be incredibly helpful.

The power of the world’s chains of Law resonated with far more vigour this time, for she encouraged the natural deviations of the Primordial Deity and forced them into overdrive. Fortunately, she had not accentuated the element of leeching in her command, only mentioning it as a title, so while Primordial Ocean’s energy still attempted to siphon from the world around it, it barely managed to do such a thing before it was ripped away from whatever it had grabbed onto, and forced into the centre of the battlefield, as if it was on the edge of a great whirlpool and got pulled in.

This affected every minion and every spawn of Primordial Ocean that was present, including the former Patriarch of the Shi District, though it did not immediately end him or the other entities.

 

She could see the particles flowing away clearly, and while the pull did not take everything, Jia Rong could see that thing that made it stable. Rather, she could perceive it far more clearly than before, and so she had to take the opportunity.

As before, she went to strike as simply as she could, trying to avoid any chances of failure when such a thing was simply not permissible, but when the entity that had been the Patriarch feebly dodged, she had the strange idea of going for a kick instead. It was not something she specialised in, but she had seen Lan Mei Xing practising quite a lot, and she had gotten involved a few times. When compared to a complete novice, she was a little better.

Her footing had been affected by the missed swing, but she used it to her advantage in order to move forward, planting her right foot into the ground with all the force she could muster. Then, with her left, she focused upon the technique demonstrated by Lan Mei Xing and, almost forgetting that she was on the battlefield, simply copied exactly what her mind had recorded.

In her time in the Ascendant’s domain, a Yi City that was returning to its former size, she had attempted to use some of the mental techniques recorded in the freely accessible archives to improve her memory and mental capacity, but most of the tomes did not match with her mind very well. As such, she had neither a mental library nor a great palace in the mind, but she must have accumulated plenty of space in her head after more than a million, if not billion years in the depths of a cave, for certain things stuck in her memory almost perfectly.

She hadn’t imagined this type of kick to be one of them, but she was proved wrong by a strangely satisfying sound of impact, alongside a kind of sloshing and pouring sound.

To prevent herself from getting caught off-guard, Jia Rong brought her attention back to the real world, only to find the shape of the former Patriarch breaking apart and splattering onto the ground, leaving a wet puddle where this man once stood.

‘I… did that? Wasn’t that a bit easy?’

 

At the time, Wei Yi wasn’t paying much attention to the demonic woman’s thoughts, as she was instead gathering her power to force Law to bend the world to her will once more. Primordial Ocean was still in the divide between the Shi District, and she needed to change that, especially now that it was growing more powerful due to its power gathering upon one spot.

“Water adheres to itself. If countless droplets were to be let loose, they would form into a single pool. So, flow to where your presence is greatest.”

Ideally, she would have done this earlier, for much of Primordial Ocean’s power had already returned to it, but fortunately for the Ascendant, the Primordial Deity decided to set its roots in the western portion of the Shi District. There was still plenty of its energy left there, and it suddenly found itself being pulled in that direction without any explicit forces that it could counter. It was as if the world itself simply picked up a piece from a board and moved it elsewhere, disregarding its opinions entirely.

“Mortal thing, you have tested my patience again and again. You-”

“As water gets deeper, its level rises. So, rise to the western coast and join the rest of your corrupting power.”

This time, she was going against common sense when it came to natural Law, for water flowed down and pooled in the deepest parts of the world first, but it was also true that it rose as more accumulated. At her current level of the Dao of Law, completely altering it was impossible without more energy than she could provide even with her killing will being completely exhausted, but if she just moved around a few figurative clauses, it was still reasonable to employ during the battle. The moment it had been moved far enough, she could relax that Law.

Primordial Ocean was forcefully pulled up the western shore, and it seemed to take full advantage of being locked into a retreat while full of power to produce an abnormal variety of waves, watery lances and whatever else water could form into, and launched it all in the direction of the Ascendant. Luckily, this was also affected by her power over the Laws around her.

‘Not to say that it’s particularly cheap, though,’ she thought, feeling her body trying to collapse onto itself again, ‘Even with the mass of energy beneath the ground, it seems that it is my body that takes the brunt of the world’s retaliation. As expected of the incompetent heavens, I suppose…’

She waited and watched to see which would give out first, and it was then that Jia Rong had struck down Primordial Ocean’s mockery of the Shi District’s Patriarch. When she observed it, her focus had been on the state of the former Patriarch rather than the thoughts of his killer, and she noticed that the supposed death wasn’t much more than the disruption of the former Patriarch’s facsimile. With its destruction, all of that remaining energy flowed back to its source.

As it turned out, the former Patriarch had held a good portion of the Primordial Deity’s power, and with it returning to its origin, a major anchor for Primordial Ocean was removed. In one moment, it was thrown back a dozen metres, something that had previously taken half a minute to occur at the moment of least resistance. Better yet, this simply accelerated.

For Primordial Ocean to reach the other shore, it took a mere five minutes, and another two for it to be pulled far enough along for her command to become insufficiently effective in comparison to the draw it had upon her vitality and energy. She cancelled her commands, and took their place by rushing in and colliding with her foe on her own. Physical strength was combined with her cultivation paths, and she performed a physical strike against Primordial Ocean to force it to confront her in close combat rather than her typical waves and what not.

“Have you no shame?”

“If you think that making me laugh will be a more effective strategy than your waves had been, you might be right,” the Ascendant said, “You don’t appear to be able to take me down, but I might well be distracted by your bullshit and slip up somewhere. Frankly, I’d just prefer you to die.”

As always, the greedy Primordial Deity would never do such a thing, and so it instead tried to make use of its power to avoid being hit. It split into a dozen waves, then converged upon the wave that went furthest from the Ascendant and manifested an enormous vortex to surround itself and prevent Wei Yi from getting any closer. The fluids of the western side of the Shi District were pulled in to conjure a wall of spears so full of just about everything that could be placed in water.

Such a method had its place against ordinary cultivators and warriors in general, but the Ascendant had an advantage as she could travel literally anywhere within a vague vicinity of herself in an instant. With no Law-based power being kept up at the moment, it was literally something that required no cost or effort whatsoever.

When the whirlpool shifted in just the right way, she appeared beside the Primordial Deity and – with Moon Splitter brought out and put into her left hand – she swung down with killing will infused into the blade beyond anything resembling a safe level.

It tore through the surface of the entity’s body, but it simply splashed onto the rest of it and flooded back into the wound.

Wei Yi knew that her attacks wouldn’t do much without an additional element, so as the Primordial Deity’s form attempted to repair itself, she willed a vast number of roots to burst out of the ground and sink into the opening provided by her attack. They were unable to pierce too far, but unlike before, the Primordial Deity also wasn’t able to remove the roots because Wei Yi appeared at a different point and slashed down again, breaching the surface as before.

Her presumption as she repeated her attacks without any pause or delay, using every root that had grown beneath the earth in preparation for this, was that the roots would continue to be mostly ineffective at inflicting real damage to Primordial Ocean, but that their sapping of its energy would give her more room to carry out some other attack, perhaps using Law, or perhaps not. Contrary to this expectation, when the waters of the Primordial Deity passed through the roots for a little while, the roots suddenly grew stronger and denser, their rapid improvement causing the Ascendant to remember why such a phenomena could occur.

‘I hold the Branch of Fitness after taking it from Primordial Nature, and that is essentially the principle of adaptation to the scenario at hand. When given the power to do so, the roots will naturally be able to take the traits of Primordial Ocean’s energy and either borrow them, or figure out a way to overcome them more effectively. Their purpose is to drain energy, so becoming more efficient at it is only natural…’

Perhaps Primordial Ocean would have opened what passed for a mouth and protested, but Wei Yi pre-empted it and shoved her roots just about everywhere they could go. With a human woman, perhaps she might have permitted her some dignity and avoided certain sensitive areas out of a completely unnecessary politeness, but even if the Primordial Deity removed every single inhuman feature on its body and acted as a shy maiden caught up in the conflict, the Ascendant would never let it go.

Soon, the Primordial Deity was utterly swallowed by Wei Yi’s boundless roots, and it cried out from within, not that she cared.

Instead, the second that the roots were tough enough to not be broken by Primordial Ocean’s efforts, she redirected all of the energy they could have consumed to her own body, and let it pass through her meridians and enter her dantian, where the primordial walls seemed to easily take ownership of the energy that settled into them.

Her cultivation rushed to a higher realm, rising more and more, but at the last moment, when the cries of Primordial Ocean vanished completely from within the roots, her progress stalled at the very edge.

It was the gap between the fifth and sixth stage, the latter of which would very likely give her the ability to confront the Primordial Deities with slightly more ordinary methods than excessive roots being shoved in places where they didn’t belong, and yet the power of Primordial Ocean was apparently insufficient to bridge the gap. How this was possible when she had just defeated the most powerful Primordial Deity so far, at least purely energy-wise, she had no clue, but it was still the case.

Still, she had to turn to the world and proclaim, “Primordial Ocean is dead! The Shi District is safe!”