Path of the Ascendant

Four months later, despite spending most of her time searching every area that Yi Shizhi had been to, she had nothing to show for it. Naturally, no one could be as lucky as to find something that might take a decade of searching on their first day, but this was so unproductive that she was almost entirely certain that her assumption about the motives of Yi Shizhi’s killing was wrong.

Nevertheless, searching one area of the woods wasn’t much different from searching another area of the woods, so she kept at it in the hopes of discovering something of value. She had located a few planar beasts, which she defeated without much effort, as well as a number of natural planar herbs, but none of them could match the potential value of the hidden grounds, or even just some clue regarding the location of their entrance.

It was on the 23^rd of the seventh month of the 1521^st year, approximately one year and one month after they had set out on this expedition, that she finally made a worthwhile discovery.

 

Yi Wei’s method of exploration was simple – she started on the spot where Yi Shizhi had perished, then walked in ever-growing circles, scouring through every possible spot where something could be hidden until moving on. With the use of spiritual will, she was able to make each circle have a radius of three metres, and so her efforts resulted in her covering a lot of ground.

She was considering the search to have been completely fruitless, when she detected a faint quiver within the space around her. It was subtle, and could have easily originated from nothing of significance, but as this was the first clue she had found in months, she went straight for it.

‘If I’m not mistaken, this should belong to a sort of disguising and confounding formation array,’ she thought, slowing down as to be sure that she wasn’t being led astray, ‘That would explain why no one has located it so far, though it would also ruin my previous theory regarding Yi Shizhi’s death having some sort of significance, other than being an attempt to weaken the competition. He was literally miles away from this spot, so unless it was intended as a diversion, which is, admittedly, plausible as well, then it was just a random kill.’

Her foot rose again and was about to step onto a patch of grass when she hesitated.

‘Hold on, shouldn’t I be stepping there?’ she moved her foot a few inches to the right and lowered it onto the ground cautiously, ‘Alright, no distracting thought. Focus on this…’

Yi Wei slowed down her pace and made sure to double check exactly where she was stepping as to avoid being taken in by whatever was affecting her. What should have taken two minutes at most to walk through was slowed down to an hour, even with the assistance of every mental art she had on her.

However, when she entered a small clearing in the woods, walled off by a countless number of thick trees, she knew that the time had been well spent.

In place of grass, this clearing had one-star planar herbs like Cold Drake Grass, Water Collecting Sprouts and luminous Yin Flowers, and in the very middle stood a small pillar that was no higher than her chest. It was made of old, mossy stone and filled with countless cracks, but it still emanated a certain grace and power that no ordinary rock could. Without a shadow of a doubt, even if this was not related to the hidden grounds, it had to be something of worth.

‘There don’t seem to be any traps or offensive arrays in the area…’ Yi Wei scanned everything with her spiritual will but found nothing even when she was right next to the ancient pedestal. Its surface had no clear indication of how to use it, so she placed her hand atop it.

Nothing happened.

‘Perhaps I need to apply some planar energy? I hope this doesn’t cause it to explode,’ she cautiously released a tiny wisp of energy from her hand into the inside of the stone pillar.

It did not explode, but neither did it activate. Using her planar energy and spiritual will, she was able to see that the inside of the obelisk contained an incredibly complex inscription, surpassing the level of a five-star without a doubt, but there was no sign of a spatial fold nor an illusory world, meaning that whatever this was, it did not contain the hidden grounds themselves.

That meant that this was either an unconnected item, perhaps some sort of treasure that was hidden in the valley by some coincidence, or it could be part of a sealing mechanism for the true location of the hidden grounds.

‘I’d prefer the latter option, so long as I am able to figure out how to activate this rock,’ she thought, considering every possible method she could imagine. Using every different type of planar energy, including lightning – which she created in her spare time of this explorative effort – and blood, mobilising a small quantity of yang physique energy that burnt off every bit of moss and vines on top of the ancient stone, and even using other formation arrays, talismans, inscriptions and, for research purposes, a pill that did little more than contain energy.

Once that didn’t prove productive, she switched to circulating random skills and using random techniques. After she had gone through every combat, defensive, movement and healing technique she could think of, then switched to mental techniques. Strictly speaking, no mental technique is intended to produce energy, but she had two that belonged to higher realms and generated something that she couldn’t quite understand.

The Red Phantom Flood proved unhelpful, although the injuries caused were lessened in comparison to the first time she used it. However, when she activated Kong Mental Arts, she finally found success.

From her head, a small wisp of the strange planar energy emerged from her body and landed on the top of the pillar. It sank in slowly, the majority of the energy evaporating before it fully entered the stone. The few drops of planar energy spread across the network of inscriptions within, and the deeper it got, the more concentrated the energy around the stone became.

Half-way through, a number of mist-like rings of planar energy condensed around the stone, hovering up and down slowly as the inscriptions within slowly completed. As soon as it did, her hand, which had begun to drift away from the pedestal, was forced back onto it.

Sparks of violet lightning burst out of the pillar and struck her arm, pricking her skin in a painful manner. Arcing on her wrist, it drew a quarter of a symbol on her flesh, disappearing immediately after.

‘Ow, that didn’t really hurt, but was instead… unpleasant. What is this?’ she examined her arm.

The symbol, which seemed to be one fourth of some ornate loop or circle, seemed to have been drawn beneath her skin with some sort of black ink. It was dark, but relatively subtle, and it just happened to be in the same position as her training cuff, which mostly covered it up. It was made of a number of different straight lines that only turned in perfect right angles, creating a rather simplistic but fascinating design.

Just as she finished examining the marking, the stone shook and began to sink down into the ground, going completely under the ground before a pile of dirt collapsed atop it, hiding it from sight.

‘So, this can only be used once, then?’ Yi Wei inspected the inscriptions within using her spiritual will and discovered that they were completely burnt out, but also that something that had been connected to it changed as well, though she was unable to trace that connection beyond the small forest clearing that contained the pillar.

That was unfortunate, but within the norm when dealing with an ancient hidden ground or inheritance. If it was hidden, then it would naturally be undesirable for it to be found, so the ancient creators of it, whoever they may have been, would have put up as many different types of defences as possible, and separate every small part of the overall structure into different areas as to slow down any potential intruder as much as possible. If she, someone in the second realm, albeit with some unusual abilities, was able to track down every part of the hidden ground’s lock with just her spiritual will, then it wouldn’t be worthwhile for her to search for it in the first place.

Yi Wei picked a dozen of each herb in the area, as she couldn’t store any more than that without bringing some attention to herself. Each planar herb had a slight aura, and even if the people with her had no knowledge of it, they would undoubtable be able to detect the vast pool of cold, water and yin energy that would be generated if she was somehow able to collect every flower and grass in the clearing.

As the pillar vanished into the ground, so did the confounding array, which allowed her to return to her original searching location in minutes.

Before she had any opportunity to have a go at searching through the place she was meant to be inspecting, she heard the loud approach of a woman, based on her audible yelps and whimpers, which she also recognised well after their repeated sparring sessions.

“How difficult can it be to walk through a few bushes?”

The reply was an elated shout, “You are there! I thought you’d have slunk away somewhere again. Could you help me out?”

She sighed, but still navigated the thick grass and plant life with ease and found the place where Yi Bai had gotten herself stuck before slashing through every branch and vine with a simple blood blade planar construct. The latter was in the fourth stage of the Planar Pool realm, but she was far weaker in terms of her general combat ability, technique usage and energy manipulation.

Due to that, she constantly lost to Yi Wei, even when she used the weakest of her skills.

“Thanks. I hate this fucking place, you know?”

“No, not really. This place has nothing on the swamp to the north, where you’d truly be stuck if you entered it carelessly,” she replied, recalling their group’s initial exploration of the valley and the time a number of them nearly drowned, “Since you’ve made your way here, I’m assuming that you didn’t just want to chat.”

“That’s right. You remember the creepy guy, the one that wanted to get in bed with you? He’s gonna blame you this time as well.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“Yi Zhu, the funny lad from last month’s sparring session, has been killed, and since you’ve rejected him, Yi Jiazhi’s not gonna let you get away as easily this time,” Yi Bai sighed, idly playing with a few strands of her hair, “Just thought I’d warn you.”

“Fuck… They need someone to blame, don’t they? Have we still not come across any of the other groups?”

“How’d I know that? For all I know, the prick had met all of them already, but he wouldn’t tell any of us,” the blonde woman spat, “Actually, I heard something about Yi Tai’s team, or rather traces of him. Yi Bing, that tall servant girl who you’d stared at every time she showed up, found a fuck-ton of large planar energy boulders, the signature skill of that guy’s Rain of Stone technique. However, by the time someone with a tracking skill got over, they’d melted into nothing.”

“And Yi Jiazhi won’t blame it on them… why?”

“I dunno. He’s an idiot?”

“Yeah…” Yi Wei nodded. If there is one thing that could be agreed about when it comes to their team leader, it was that he wasn’t the brightest star in the sky, if he was even somewhere up there. Without even mentioning his attempts to charm random women with his skill, he wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning without the aid of his supporters in the group.

“So, you wanna run, or are you gonna kick his ass?” Yi Bai asked, imitating Yi Wei’s fighting posture without too much accuracy.

“I’m not insane, you know? Actually, if you don’t mind me asking, what element are you practising?”

“Earth…” she paused when she understood the implication of her question, “You’re not try and blame me, are you? I’d never beat Yi Zhu up, and not just because I can’t. Seriously, at this point, it’d make more sense to accuse the plants.”

“Don’t worry, Bai, I am not accusing you of anything… though you do raise an interesting point about the flora. I haven’t found any planar wildlife yet, even though this place is perfect for it,” Yi Wei muttered, “However, I’m thinking that if he wanted to blame someone, then you would still be a better target.”

“Then, I suppose I can agree with you. Maybe you’re the weakest, so if you’re offed, there’ll be the least harm to the group?”

“Hm, that could be true. I wonde- DUCK!” Yi Wei caught the faint sound of something whizzing in their direction from afar, so she leapt onto Yi Bai and threw her down to the grass. The very next moment, that object shot past where they stood and pierced the tree behind them.

“What are yo-” Yi Bai was about to ask when she looked up and saw an enormous arrow that had split the tree in two, “Oh. Shit. You know who that’s reminding me of?”

“Yi Fenwu?”

“Yi Fenwu.”

Yi Fenwu was one of the six group leaders on this expedition, and she was the most powerful of them, being at the sixth stage of Emergent Anchor. Her cultivation technique was called Soaring Dragon’s Flight, and her preferred weapon was a gigantic bow and arrows that were currently physical but would become stabilised planar constructs the moment she reached the fourth realm. She was a famous beauty amongst the middle-class members of the family, but a high number of them did not dare to come after her due to her impressive cultivation speed and strength.

“So…” Yi Wei glanced down at the woman beneath her, “We need to run…”

“Yep,” Yi Bai replied in a whisper, “Do you have any ideas? I have no movement techniques, and my general defensive skills, are… in a word, fucked.”

She listened out for a moment while she released her grasp on Yi Bai and crouched beside her, “You won’t be able to block the arrows, true (and neither can I, I’m afraid), but you can deflect them, at least one or two of them. I have an idea, but it only has a small chance of success… maybe thirty-nine percent, at most.”

“One realm and six stages, yet you’ve still got that high a chance? I’m in.”

Yi Bai rose to her feet as well, albeit while causing far more noise. As a direct response, the sound of a gigantic arrow being nocked was caught by Yi Wei’s ears.

‘Is she using her hearing to detect us? That is not good, not when this girl is unable to remain quiet,’ she bit her lip, ‘I can’t pass on any of my stealth techniques to her, and neither can I shield her without using all of my hidden strength. Since I do not want to display it yet, I could…’

She activated both her cosmic planar energy and the Kong Mental Arts, increasing the speed of her thoughts as much as she could. In the moment that the arrow was being pulled back, her mind went through a thousand different possibilities… ‘And yet, my best idea is something so nonsensical that I do not even want to voice it in my own thoughts… I do need something to distract her attention for long enough to break away, but also some method of neutralising the first shot, at the very least…’

“Alright, an arrow will be shot at us in a moment. The moment I yell anything at all, you must create a shield with all of your planar energy on that exact point,” Yi Wei pointed to a spot in the grass, “Then, run.”

“Got it!”

The wait felt like it was a thousand years when, in reality, it was just a single second. The next, the distinct sound of an arrow being fired echoed throughout the forest.

“Now!”

Out of the earth, a jagged stone shield rose. The dark stone pierced the dirt as if it was butter and ascended quickly – but not to Yi Wei. In comparison to the speed of the gigantic arrow heading for them, the shield was no faster than a turtle that was missing its legs.

Luckily, she had taken this into account, relying on Yi Bai’s limited ability in terms of planar energy usage to allow her plan to happen.

As soon it was half-way out of the ground, the arrow reached it.

‘It’s aiming at me? Interesting…’ a thought flashed past her mind as she dashed forward.

The arrow tip was about to soar past the stone when it was struck by the top of the shield, causing it to bounce off and change its trajectory, instead soaring upward rather than towards them. Before it had a chance to go anywhere, Yi Wei leapt up to it and grabbed onto the arrow shaft with her right hand. Simultaneously, she performed a number of different tasks.

First, she infused as much of her planar energy into the arrow – which was a low-grade artefact – in blood form as she could, causing the metal to creak and crack near her hand, crimson light flickering through the gaps.

Also, she channelled her cosmic energy into her arm, both maximising its strength and executing the loudest combat technique she could create, temporarily named the Banshee’s Scream.

Finally, using the substitution of the physique energy, she activated a number of other skills to enhance the Banshee’s Scream and allow her to throw the arrow far enough. Bedrock Skill technique strengthened her skin and flesh to hopefully allow it to survive the effort of the throw. Gentle Breeze Strike was used to guide the arrow’s path a little further. Boulder Pushing Palm further added to her strength, increasing the force of the throw as much as possible. A subtler version of Storm Blade Wreathing was applied to increase the size of the explosion.

“HA!” she screamed out as she threw the arrow like a spear.

The instant it left her hand, it created an enormous sonic boom, accelerating past the speed of sound. It soared away, causing every tree near its path to shatter and break away, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

For a moment, there was silence as Yi Wei grabbed Yi Bai’s hand with her left hand.

Then, an enormous flash of blood-red light exploded in the distance, covering the entirety of the forest in crimson light. As the flash began to fade, the sound of the explosion reached them, a powerful sound that ripped away the leaves of every tree in the area and momentarily deafened Yi Bai. Yi Wei had developed a certain degree of resistance to loud sounds by now, and her ears were significantly strengthened by a number of treatments with cosmic energy.

They ran as quickly as they could, stopping only once they found a tree large enough to hide behind safely.

It was then that Yi Wei was able to examine her throwing hand and found it to be completely ruined. The bones in her arm and hand were completely shattered, her muscles were torn and ripped apart, and the skin was ruptured in a thousand places, with blood slowly pouring from it onto the forest floor.

‘This… is highly unpleasant, but also not as painful as it should be. I’m going to lose my sense of pain completely if this happens again,’ she noted, channelling some of her remaining planar energy to repair some of the fundamental parts of her limb, “Now, please stay quiet, or else that woman is going to find us again.”

“Ri- right…” Yi Bai replied, lowering her voice as much as she was able to, though her breathing alone was probably loud enough to give her away, “That was so cool… You’re really strong, aren’t you?”

“I practise some body cultivation techniques, so it is to be expected,” she waved away the complement, “Do you have any methods of hiding the sounds you make? I’m pretty sure you’re the reason Yi Fenwu caught onto us.”

The blond woman shook her head, “I’d have used it already. Do you think she’ll go through the explosion and keep attacking us?”

“Naturally. Speaking of which, let us get back to running.”

They nodded to one another and got up, charging in the direction of their camp under Yi Wei’s guidance, who was able to bring them through the quietest areas without much effort thanks to every single book on survival in the wild, navigating forests and other random topics that she had read in the past. The Thunder Lord also had a significant amount of experience of navigation in the wilderness, judging by how much forests were featured in certain memories, but she knew very few of the skills he used and thus couldn’t gain much from his memories alone.

After several minutes of running, they began to see familiar terrain, but just as they entered it, the sound of an arrow being prepared entered her ears. Quickly, the sound of it being shot out followed, the faint metallic glint of the arrow tip could be seen in the distance.

Yi Wei resisted the urge to curse and simply shouted, “Shield! Now!”

To her credit, Yi Bai reacted quickly, creating a jagged stone shield in the path of the arrow. Nevertheless, the timing was off, and the barrier would not come up at the right time.

‘Not good. These spear-like arrows are able to pierce trees easily, and a planar construct won’t stop it. Now, that is a useful thought for once. Spear-like, huh…’ Yi Wei smiled, holding out her left hand while executing the Living Spear technique in combination with the Dawn Flowing Light, which was still in the process of being improved.

The Living Spear skill was a wood-type technique, but she forcefully used it as a metal technique, causing a metallic planar construct to grow out within her hand, shaped exactly like the massive arrow that she had thrown back minutes earlier.

She pulled her arm back, as far as she could, and threw the arrow-spear.

Two arrows, real and not, flew at one another. One moved far, far faster than the other, as Yi Wei did not want to risk shattering her second arm, but that did not matter when they collided.

Instantly, the planar construct shattered, but its momentum was sufficient to slow the arrow down. The spear-like projectile began to fall much quicker and headed straight for the stone barrier created by Yi Bai. It struck the shield, piercing through it as easily as expected, but it crashed into the ground with only a dull thud instead of a small explosion as it otherwise would have. It was still glowing with brown earth-type energy from the one that fired it.

“I’ll take this,” she muttered, grabbing the arrow with her lone working hand, “Yi Bai, run ahead of me! It’s easier to defend against these things when I’m only worrying about myself.”

“Alright, thanks! Your tombstone will be great, I promise!” Yi Bai joked, and ran.

Although it wasn’t too funny in Yi Wei’s opinion, she ignored it and followed her while keeping a slower pace. Whenever she heard the nocking of an arrow, she threw out a delayed Banshee’s Scream talisman, drawing them in blood in a matter of seconds. She was not too keen on losing much blood, but whether for better or worse, Yi Fenwu caught on quickly.

Unfortunately for that woman, she was not fast enough. Before the next arrow could reach her, they stumbled into camp.

“There you are!” Yi Jiazhi spotted them immediately, “We-”

“I’ve found Yi Fenwu!” Yi Wei interrupted him, raising the spear-like arrow into the air before jumping off to the side. With Yi Bai following suit, when the arrow was fired, the person directly in its trajectory was none other than Yi Jiazhi.

“What are you- oh,” he finally understood her words when he noticed the approaching shape of the great arrow.

He raised his hand and held out his palm, as if bidding the arrow to stop. Dozens of mystical flaming characters emerged from his arm, circling around it at different speeds. Just as the projectile was half-way through its journey, the symbols suddenly sunk back in, and a massive wall of fiery magma appeared at the edge of the camp. Yi Jiazhi frowned, and a titanic planar anchor appeared behind him, radiating such intense heat that the grass beneath it turned into ash instantly, and the dirt began to transform into glass.

The wall of earth fire grew thicker and larger, expanding from the size of a large tower shield to the shell of a hundred-year Eternal Turtle, effectively doubling in size.

Before he had the opportunity to take another breath, the arrow finally arrived. It cut through the air and impacted into the magma, creating an enormous ripple that spat out blobs of earth flame into the forest, burning grass and trees alike.

Despite that, the arrow tip still pierced the defensive barrier, with the entire projectile passing half-way through the magma before stopping.

Yi Jiazhi let out a breath as the planar anchor and the shield disappeared, letting the arrow drop to the ground harmlessly. Well, as harmlessly as an enormous, heavy spear being misused as an arrow could.

“Yi! Fen! Wu! Come out here!”

For a moment, there was silence before a quiet giggle was carried to them over the air. Out of the depths of the forest, one robed figure emerged, then another and another appeared, carrying artefact bows, swords, spears and blades, with a large number of them also carrying at least one defensive artefact on their bodies, with many displaying them prominently over their robes. They formed a large semi-circle around Yi Jiazhi’s camp, and only once they all pointed their weapons at them did their leader emerge. It was a tall, dainty woman clothed in the typical robes of the middle-class members of the family, but also had a large fabric shawl wrapped behind her neck and drooping over both shoulders. The shawl was white, and thus blended in with her robes while also partially obscuring two giant arrows bound to her back. In her hand was the great bow she was well-known for, with both hands wrapped in bandages. Her crimson hair hung freely from her head, reaching all the way to her thighs, and it waved calmly in the wind.

Out of all her curious features, however, the most eye-catching (with the wording being entirely intentional) was the ornate silk blindfold covering her eyes, with most of her hair going over it.

She turned her head back slightly, prompting a servant with a dozen of the giant arrows on his back to appear and take the one she was holding from her, adding it to the ones on his back despite clearly struggling to hold all of them.

“Yi Jiazhi. I didn’t expect to find you here. I was just hunting some animals for training when they suddenly decided to run off in your direction,” Yi Fenwu said with a coy smile, resting a finger on her chin, “Would you be so kind as to hand them over to me, darling? Or would you like me to get them myself?”

In the uncomfortable silence that followed, the adrenaline finally faded from Yi Wei’s mind, leaving it open to the less welcome thoughts, such as, ‘She’s so hot… Damn it, I was doing so well, too…’

“Yi Fenwu, are you the one slaughtering members of our group?” their leader ignored her request, earning a few surprised looks from both sides, “If you are, then don’t you dare think of leaving here without a fight!”

“Me? Slaughtering your team? Whatever could you mean?” she said, putting her hand on her chest with an exaggerated hurt look, “I have merely killed some wild beasts, not our dear family members.”

‘I want to trust her- no, I don’t, but my corrupted mind does… but that is not at all believable.’

“I don’t trust you!” Yi Jiazhi had the same opinion, which he voiced clearly and without restraint, “Just now, you were clearly trying to kill our team members, so how in the heavens am I supposed to believe anything you say?”

“Oh dear, was I?” Yi Fenwu tilted her head questioningly and pulled off the blindfold to reveal two abyssal black eyes. They stared at Yi Jiazhi’s group and examined each person, pausing only briefly at a few people, Yi Wei included, “No wonder those small creatures put up such great resistance. I do sincerely apologise for the inconvenience, darling. I suppose you can keep my arrow for a while, then… I’m sure you’ll return them in time…”

She chuckled while wrapping the blindfold around her neck, “Now, let’s not be bothered with such insignificant matters. Since we’ve found one another, dear, why don’t we discuss how we’re going to get along? Would you mind us setting up a camp near you?”

Yi Jiazhi frowned, “Near us? Why would you want to do that?”

“Darling, you’ve not grown wiser since we’ve last met, have you?” she responded, shaking her head in pity, “I just want to be closer to you.”

‘It is naturally not that simple, but I get the feeling that even if Yi Jiazhi catches on, he’ll not be allowed to disagree. We are surrounded, and also overpowered thanks to all of her group having artefacts that we do not possess. Once we are forced to accept, we will probably be monitored constantly, and any discoveries we make will be known to them at the same time. Then, they can just get there first and deal with it themselves, getting whatever rewards there are to be found. Luckily for us – or, rather, me – the obelisks seem to be connected to the hidden grounds, and thus they are likely to be inaccessible to anyone who doesn’t have the same strange planar energy that I possess thanks to the Kong Mental Arts… unless the various locks have different opening mechanisms, in which case even I may not be able to open all of them.’

Their leader thoughts for as long as she did, but regardless of how much he considered, his conclusion was the same, “Fine. Why don’t we go and decide where you will settle down on our own, without the, eh… audience?”

“I’d be glad to, darling!”

With a click of her fingers, the group that surrounded them back away, lowering their weapons. She waved Yi Jiazhi over to her, before they headed away from the camp and disappeared within the thick forest.

After a brief wait, Yi Bai looked around carefully before spitting onto the ground, “That damn slut, why was she the first one we found?”

“I get the dislike for her,” Yi Wei whispered back, keeping the fact that she also knew why so many men chased, or dreamed about chasing after Yi Fenwu to herself, “But she didn’t do anything to deserve that particular label, surely?”

“What, are you gonna defend her? Look at those two! If they didn’t hate each other, you’d think they were going off for a fu-“

“We’ve arrived at a conclusion,” Yi Jiazhi returned suddenly, forcing Yi Bai to shut up to avoid being beaten up, “Yi Fenwu’s group will be… uh, working, with us, so we should get along for now. Understood, all of you?”

The team did not immediately accept that outcome, but none of the had any chance of defeating a master in the sixth stage of the Emergent Anchor realm, especially not one that had so many different treasures at her disposal, so they had no choice but to go along with it in the end. Yi Bai had no opportunity to finish what she was saying, as they were then asked to attend a quick strategy meeting.