Path of the Ascendant

It was only when she had gotten to the twentieth enemy that she had to break a sweat, as her arm was getting somewhat cramped from repeating the same motion over and over again.

When the last enemy broke into pieces of energy that then sunk into the floor, the voice of the illusory world spoke up. Unlike the last few times she had heard it, it had acquired that strange sense of humanity that was missing from most of its speech, appearing only in the few times that something out of the ordinary, like her additional modifiers, had happened.

“Based on the participant’s performance, a reward has been assigned. Voice your preference now.”

Though the oddity of this forced her to raise an eyebrow, she still responded swiftly, coughing once to ensure that her voice wouldn’t come out too feminine-sounding, “I want a set of weights, in the form of restraints, cuffs or bracelets, that I can easily wear on my body without attracting too much attention. It would be best if I could get rid of them in battle without much difficulty, for obvious reasons.”

 

“Interesting. Great Light, do you still have your training set?”

“You want to give them away to that boy? For free?”

“He may work with us soon. I see no reason not to do so…”

“Ugh, fine, you can do that, if you want… This Da Gang better end up a genius…” Great Light grumbled, vanishing for a second before returning with two metal armbands, leg bands, a belt and a thin, black choker, “Here. Take them. Go on.”

“I hope so too,” Great Dark said, raising their head, “Your reward has been decided… It is being delivered immediately.”

 

“Your reward has been decided,” the illusory world’s voice said, after a brief silence, “It is being delivered immediately.”

A dim light appeared within the darkness, and just below it, lying on the floor, was a set of items that clearly resembled what she had asked for, with the natural exception of a thin band of soft cloth that lay on top of it.

‘Well, there are certain interesting items amongst the thousands of simple swords and sabres. I’ve heard that certain experts use parasols, brushes and bricks as their weapons, so I suppose that it isn’t too strange to see a strip of fabric being used for training…’ Yi Wei reasoned, though she quickly encountered another issue, ‘Where am I supposed to wear it? Let’s see… these four go on my arms and legs, the belt goes on my waist, so… this… is… for… my… neck? Won’t I look like I’m wearing a collar of some sort?’

She tried to lift a metal armband, feeling it straining her arm just to raise it slightly. It was heavier than anything else she had found so far, probably weighing as much as she did.

‘That’s just for a single arm, too… I will certainly struggle even outside of the pagoda,’ she understood, managing to put them on after a long time, but when she went to pick up the satin band, she discovered that it weighed as much as the metal bands on her arms and legs, ‘Wow. Since it’s that heavy, I think I’ll just leave it here.’

However, she took just one step away, and the voice stopped her, “Please equip every reward item to proceed.”

It was very difficult for her to swallow the many insults she wanted to throw at that voice. While exuding every drop of killing intent she could muster, she grabbed the satin band, reached into her robes and bound it around her neck.

While the weights on her arms and legs were simply heavy, the choker was also tight, effectively halving the amount of air she could breathe in at once.

‘I’m not sure if I’ll die due to being crushed or lacking air first…’ Yi Wei coughed, barely craning her head up, “You happy now?”

This time, the reply was void of emotion yet again, “Please proceed to the fifth floor.”

Had the source of the voice been in front of her, it would have been beaten into the ground by now.

 

“Hehe.”

“Great Light, your… immature… behaviour is not appreciated.”

“Let him suffer! He should have died from my planar energy, and now he ca- What in the heavens?”

 

To distract herself from the immense pressure all over her body, Yi Wei turned her mind back to the many concepts she merged together for the Condensed Formation Body. One thing she had realised after gaining the ability to reinforce her body was the fact that she had focused a little too much on the dantian bone formation, rather than actually improving her body. After using her planar energy to strengthen all of her body, the only thing that remained unaffected were the bone shards spread out within her body.

To correct that, she quickly sent wisps of energy to every part of the array within her body. The effect…

‘I’m breaking through in my body technique!? How much of an effect does some of my energy have?’

Perhaps, in the entire world, only the heavens knew the answer, but they chose to remain silent, watching as her body cultivation art broke through to Minor Achievement.

 

“No! I refuse to believe this! What is happening today?” Great Light shouted, throwing a casual punch at the wall. It was stopped a few moments before it hit a wall of light, put together from a thousand different complex shapes entwined together.

“A genius, perhaps. He must learn inscription, for the sake of the world,” Great Dark ignored the tantrum, and maintained their focus on the glow coming from within Yi Wei’s body in an attempt to comprehend the technique she practised.

No matter how hard they looked, they were unable to understand it, nor did they feel the presence of any such technique within the body, even though it was obvious that she was practising some form of body cultivation. In fact, if they didn’t see her cultivate, they would have good reason to assume that she hadn’t practised a single technique in her entire life. There was no influence on her meridians whatsoever, as if she had somehow bypassed all side effects of her techniques.

 

Unlike the time she first developed her technique, this progression was relatively painless. It still broke down and remade her bones and flesh, but in comparison to getting four more meridian networks, it was positively pleasant.

‘It’s exactly as I feared – I’m getting used to it,’ Yi Wei realised, taking another step up the stairs, ‘However, my body technique has doubled in strength, so these weights aren’t as difficult to wear. Phew. Now all I need is to get used to the way they affect my balance.’

 

“At this rate, he’ll get to the Planar Pool realm by the end of the day,” the being in the stone chamber muttered, reminiscing over their own experiences. Back then, any technique would take at least one year to learn fully, and yet this person in their pagoda broke through simply due to putting on some weights…

“That would be a blessing… for the younger generation…” Great Dark responded, though even their passive voice showed a hint of jealousy.

 

Just like all the other floors, the fifth floor was filled with darkness, and the only visible surface was the floor. However, while the other floors were relatively pristine, this one looked dusty and dirty, with several ancient stains ruining the smooth wood planks.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this floor was far less frequented that the ones below, which indicated that most couldn’t defeat twenty opponents on an equal level in a row.

Of course, since she was still within an illusory world, the dust could have been an intentional feature for this particular floor. However, as someone with some experience with formation arrays, Yi Wei knew that generating such insignificant details as layers of dust would simply waste the capabilities and effort of the array’s creator. Unless there was some significance to the dust, not even someone within the legendary Linked Channels realm, the sixth realm of cultivation, would waste their resources on it.

“Fifth floor: duel,” the voice that spoke was not emotionless, “Defeat the shadow of a legendary figure. Victory will result in a reward of varying value depending on the opponent defeated.”

A dull blue light appeared within the fog, growing brighter and brighter until it became a candle amidst the night. Then, it approached her slowly. As it neared, Yi Wei was able to discern that it was a humanoid figure, robed in countless layers of cloth, fabric and metal plates. In its hand was a greatsword that was embossed with a number of glowing blue runes that crackled, as if containing lightning. On its head was a helmet, and from within only two balls of lightning illuminated it.

“Thunder Lord, Seventh of Meng!” she recognised him, recalling the tales of his thunderous blade and what appeared to be lightning cultivation. Although the figure was introduced as a shadow of the true legend, and so it was unlikely to be in Marked Core realm, it would still be a mighty adversary even if it was a mortal that relied only on the techniques of the true Thunder Lord.

The figure waited patiently for her to prepare, standing at the edge of the darkness.

She recovered the planar energy she had lost, then performed a few stretches and practise punches while it watched, entering a combat stance only once she was fully ready.

 

“That…”

“He...”

“.. doesn’t come out often…”

“Yeah…”

“Of all the people that fought the G- ehm, Them, and allowed us to store his shadow, he was perhaps the mightiest. To think that he has chosen to emerge to emerge for this boy… It would benefit us greatly if we could learn his secrets through him, though I doubt that will happen,” Great Light said, making a complex sound that combined both hope and disappointment.

“Do not be so quick to dismiss the possibility… There is a chance that the impossible will happen once more… Although, when it has happened several times, can it be impossible… Perhaps it would be more appropriate-”

“Great Dark, are you trying to get philosophical again? Honestly, just shut up and watch. Why are we even using water? Why can’t we just observe the earth?”

“Less colour, and… well, we’ve discussed that more than I’ve gotten philosophical…”

 

“Are you more intelligent than your counterparts below?” Yi Wei asked, feeling a slightly different aura from this being than the others.

The Thunder Lord did not respond, merely raising his sword to prepare for an attack.

“Well, fine then. Please go easy on me,” she said, shutting her eyes for a few seconds to attain full focus. She listened out for every minute movement of the shadow, the sounds of cloth and metal brushing against each other, and any other thing she could notice.

When her eyes opened, the only thing on her mind was her opponent.

As her greatest advantage was the extra weight she was forced to lug around, she began by throwing herself forward with every weight. The shadow waited until she got just close enough, then raised its blade. A spark of lighting burst from one of the runes on the blade, and then another and another, until the entire sword was covered in a powerful storm.

Then, it vanished in an instant. The first hint of the shadow’s new position came in the form of the flat side of the blade crashing into her spine from above, launching her into the floor. Numerous bolts of lightning coursed through her, and she felt at least one bone breaking inside her body as she collided face-first with the floor.

‘Fu-… why aren’t they eating the lightning? This guy’s clearly higher than the first realm, so does the energy need to be in its raw form, or is it not powerful enough?’ Yi Wei questioned, leaping up to her feet, channelling her planar energy throughout her body.

As a wisp of energy reached her eyes, her perception of time slowed significantly, and when the shadow was about to vanish again, she saw that he had executed a strange movement technique that wreathed his legs in lightning, before moving in an extremely strange manner, sometimes to the side, sometimes backwards, in the direction he intended to go.

With that insight, she was narrowly able to predict his approach and dodge out of the way, though the sheer force of the sword being swung sliced off a piece of her robe.

‘Still, it looks like that’s one of the techniques used to achieve the vanishing effect of the fourth realm. If I study it closely, I might be able to imitate it and integrate it into my future movement technique,’ she thought, barely succeeding in evading a second lightning fast strike, ‘I guess it’s time for the truly dangerous weapons to be put to use.’

Yi Wei waited for the Thunder Lord to perform another vanishing manoeuvre, and just as his blade began to fly at her, she leapt up with every gram of strength she could muster. Then, raising her palm into the air, she did something stupid – but something she had wanted to do for a while.

“Elysian… Palm!”

Planar energy burst from her arm and flew to her hand, forming the shape of an iridescent palm in front of it.

It did not seem to surprise the shadow, as he simply tapped the blade of his sword. A second lightning rune burst into action, wrapping the sword in a second layer of lightning. He raised it to block her strike as if it wasn’t of any great concern to him.

“Lass, mere power won’t be enough for yer later opponents,” a voice emerged from within its rusted helm, “Just because ye can do what most cannot, doesn’t mean yer invincible against Them.”

‘So, he can speak,’ she noted as her palm crashed down on his blade.

The collision was as if she had struck a large bell while the heavens sent down a bolt of lighting upon her. Despite the force of the palm easily exceeding her every previous use of it by a significant margin, it was all absorbed easily by the Thunder Lord’s sword, and the next instant, it was already moving to stab into her stomach.

She reacted as quickly as she was able, grabbing the blade with both hands, only narrowly stopping its movement. As it cut into her, drawing blood with ease, she didn’t let the pain affect her. Instead, she smiled, and sent her planar energy into the sword.

In just an instant of contact, the upper half of the blade broke down into dust, and the cracks spread all the way down, to the hilt and even the pommel.

With just one portion of her energy, the sword was annihilated.

“That, however, is impressive,” the shadow had to admit, tossing away the remains of his weapon, “Fer the ones that use weapons akin to mine, their strength would be halved with such a move.”

Somewhere in the darkness, the hilt exploded in a violet flame, temporarily breaching the void and revealing a hint of sunlight before it was gone once more. Now, both of them stood without weapons, dressed in ragged clothes and ancient armour.

 

“How did he do that?” Great Dark asked, frowning as they saw the explosion.

“Is he not letting you hear him either?” Great Light responded with another question, “Even if the Thunder Lord knows, he clearly doesn’t wish to tell us.”

“Another secret that he will carry with him… Wait, is he… he is!”

 

Yi Wei did not ignore the opportunity. As soon as the shadow was distracted, she rushed at him, throwing every punch, palm and kick she could at him, trying to simultaneously comprehend his two lightning techniques. Although none of her attacks, not even her occasional execution of a weaker variant of the Elysian Palm, were as powerful as the Thunder Lord’s blade swipes, it was clear that as she struck him again and again, he was being pushed back. Without a doubt, this shadow was not as powerful as the original, and couldn’t be any higher than the peak of the Planar Pool realm.

Still, for someone in the second realm to successfully execute the fourth realm’s movement techniques was, perhaps, as impressive as creating external force while in the first realm.

All of a sudden, her incoming fist was calmly grabbed by the Thunder Lord, who did not retaliate, his glowing eyes staring into hers. She wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but there seemed to be a smile within the shadow of his helmet.

“There’s no reason to keep wailin’ on me, lass. With me sword, me anchor gone, I’ll not be lasting long. Instead, let you and me talk for a while,” the Thunder Lord said, releasing her fist, “And don’t ye worry. The two can’t see ye if I don’t let them.”

“Really?”

“I have no reason to lie to ye, lass. Just ask them later if they’ve figured out that you’ve literally no balls.”

“That’s a crass way of putting it, Thunder Lord, but I suppose I don’t have much a choice. You’ve already said ‘lass’ a few dozen times, so if they haven’t noticed, they can’t possibly be cultivators,” Yi Wei shrugged, reverting to her normal voice.

“Hah! I like yer way of puttin’ it. So, ye here doin’ the disguised warrior thing, right?”

“Indeed. I’m a lowly servant of the Yi family, so if I’m suddenly leaping to the peak of Energy Condensation with unique techniques, it would surely draw a lot of attention, and overly eager family elders trying to steal the legacy I don’t actually have from me,” she said, though she kept her mask on – just in case, “Say, would you be kind enough to teach me your techniques?”

“If I remember this floor’s setup right, you’ll get somethin’ for yer victory, even if it be due to my own surrender,” the shadow said, “However, I do have a gift for ye, if ye want it. It’d work with ye trainin’ set, and would allow me to leave behind one final gift for… yer not familiar with them, so there’s really no point in explainin’, but it’d be enough to know that you’ve got a rough time ahead of ye.”

“I can’t say that I know exactly what you mean. Are you able to enhance the weights I’m wearing, or imbue them with something?”

“More of the latter, lass. I can see that the weights are heavy enough as they are, so more will just break yer bones. I am able to bind myself to the choker on yer neck, and provide guidance in the fields that I’ve learned. Lightning techniques mostly, but other stuff’s also within my head,” Thunder Lord Meng explained, tapping on his helmet, “Whenever you find somethin’ of use, I can give ye every secret I’ve learned from reaching beyond the peak of those techniques. However, I won’t last too long, so after I’ve given ye most of what I’ve got, I’ll be off. And don’t expect combat support from me, lass – I can only do a thing to ye ‘cause I’m in ‘ere. The illusory world lets me and the spectres below do harm, but outside, unless ye’ve got some skill in five star arrays, I’ll be as useless as a cock on a monk.”

“Lord Seventh of Meng, you’re talking to a girl. Can’t you tone it down just a little?”

“Sorry, though I’m not too sorry. If you don’t keep yerself disguised for the rest of yer life, you’ll get much worse, believe me. Besides, it’s been too long since I’ve gotten to speak with someone, so I wanted me opportunity to chat. Don’t ye worry though – once I’ve moved to yer gear, I won’t chat to ye anymore.”

“Is that so? Hm… Well, since I can just break all of this off if you bother me too much, I’ll accept your offer, Thunder Lord,” Yi Wei decided after a brief period of thought, “While you are still able to talk, could you explain to me how you’ve ended up in a pagoda of a random combat establishment?”

“Random? Yer not tryin’ to joke, are ye? They’ve hidden surprisingly well, then. I’ve promised to behave meself, so you’ll not learn a thing from me!”

“Really, Lord Seventh? Can you tell me how you’ve managed to perform that movement technique in the Planar Pool realm, then?”

“Eh…”

“You can’t even give me that little? Just one, simple technique, and you can’t provide it to me as a gift alongside… whatever it is you intend to do?”

“You… eh, fine, I’ll tell ye when I do the thing. It won’t be the whole thing, so ye’ll need to practise quite a bit, but since you’ve noticed it already, it ought to be easy for ye. Now, allow me to change where I’m bound to. It’ll take only a moment.”

His figure flickered, and when it stabilised, all that remained was a small ball of lightning, no bigger than Yi Wei’s eye. It floated up to her, easily passing through her robes until it touched her neck. With the sound of a thunderclap, it wrapped around the black satin, and entered it, blending in as if the shadow was a mere hallucination.

However, her mind was far less calm. First, it was flooded with various memories of a movement technique, starting from the perspective of a young man – who was slightly too enamoured with a girl for Yi Wei’s liking – and ending up at a massive battlefield. The surroundings were hazy, but the movements involved were clear as day. When that memory faded, she had an enormous quantity of insight into the actions she was previously only narrowly comprehending.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end. Following the memories of the movement technique were all sorts of insights into palm, fist and even the occasional finger technique. She saw battlefields, arenas, stages and rooms, even the front-row seat of the Thunder Lord lying atop that girl from before, exploiting his newly learned technique to-

“NO! NOT THAT! GO AWAY!” Yi Wei yelled at the top of her lungs, not caring who or what could hear her. She was only seconds from trying to beat the memory out of her head when it stopped, leaving her with a very red face while she processed the rest of the memories.

 

“The darkness has finally cleared. What’s happening?”

“The Thunder Lord has surrendered… Da Gang has earned a reward.”

 

Yi Wei wanted to hit someone. Anyone. As long as she could get someone to beat up, she wouldn’t want to claw her own eyes out so much. Other distractions would also work, but somehow, the thought of hitting some annoying idiot in the face was the most soothing thing she could think of.

‘I didn’t need to see – or feel – that! I just wanted the techniques! I got them, but not the ones I needed! Will I even be able to lay with a man after this?’ the questions shot through her mind at an incredible speed, attempting to comprehend exactly what had just occurred. It all began well enough, but the more strange techniques she acquired insight on, the more the Thunder Lord’s memories diverged into the private.

By the time she was getting memories related to a few things she had read a year ago, the content had shifted all the way into literal smut.

In this world, such things did exist, but they were rather niche, intended purely for men, and never from the first-person perspective, and most certainly not with such realism. Even if it had been smut of the regular type, Yi Wei didn’t have any particular desire to view it, and even then, she would have much preferred to witness it from the perspective of the correct sex.

Thankfully, a distraction did arrive in the form of a large scroll that was surrounded by lightning.

She struck the ground once to calm herself and got up to approach the item. When she reached out her hand to touch the sparking item, the aura of storms receded, allowing her to come into contact with it safely.

On the top, a number of words were written out in a beautiful golden ink, ‘Storm Blade Wreathing Technique.’

“Tch. Of all the things the Seventh of Meng was famous for, I get this? Did those ‘two’, whoever they are, choose it for me?” Yi Wei wondered, speaking out loud to potentially receive an answer, “I don’t use a blade, nor a sword. I thought I told them.”

Nevertheless, she received no answer, so she began to read.