Path of the Ascendant

Just as the violet planar energy was about to reach her brain, an enormous wave of force surged through the silver armour, throwing a swarm of them out of the way. A second wave quickly followed, and it was itself trailed by a familiar blue-haired figure who landed beside Yi Wei.

“Oh, hi! You’re here too!” she exclaimed, waving at her, “This place sure is annoying, isn’t it?”

“… Sure.”

“You don’t happen to know where the exit is? I didn’t know I’d stumble into such an annoying array here, and I don’t want to break it all down…”

‘Sorry, are you telling me you could do that? What realm are you in? This thing can’t possibly be below five stars, and if you want to damage it without being at the formation eye then you must be either a very powerful individual in the fifth realm, or someone in the sixth. If you are truly either one of those, then you have put my cultivation speed to shame,’ Yi Wei thought, but shook her head, “I am not sure whether this is a complex illusory array, or whether it also includes a confusion formation within to prevent an easy escape. Thus, if it is the former, you need to simply take a few steps back, but if it is the latter, then any step you take could actually be leading you in the wrong direction.”

“Right, I know that… How do we figure that out again?”

“Do you practise any mental techniques or skills?”

The blue-haired woman rubbed her chin, “Eh… n-no? Those are the things that make you smarter, right? I’ve not had a chance to practise those yet, unfortunately…”

“Then give me a moment,” Yi Wei said, placing one hand at the side of her head.

She activated the Kong Mental Arts again and was not interrupted this time as the woman standing next to her was able to throw away any approaching soldiers with a flick of her fingers. As a result, she was able to completely fill her mind with the mental technique’s clearing energy.

In the centre of her vision, a thin point expanded to the size of a small apple, revealing a different swamp to the one within the illusion. However, the rest of her sight was completely unchanged, and even the small point she could see through was constantly wavering, the illusion threatening to consume the reality behind itself.

That made it all the more obvious that this array was the most advanced of the ones she had seen so far. There was a high chance that a great deal of spatial comprehension was invested into its creation, allowing it to act almost like a complete reality of its own.

Beneath the falsehood, she saw the vague lines and nodes that made up an array which reached out underneath her and ended far in the distance.

“I think the array is much larger than it appears,” Yi Wei said to the blue-haired woman, “It’s likely that we entered it some time ago, but it sealed around us once we passed a certain point. Additionally, if you were to randomly walk in that direction, you’ll probably end up walking in circles thanks to the multitude of sections within the arrays. The nodes there, there and there should be part of a confusion array, though I lack enough understanding of higher-grade formation arrays to identify it.”

“Oh, okay. Should I just destroy… no, I wouldn’t want to mess someone’s work up just because I stumbled into it by accident. Can I just walk out?”

“You can attempt it, sure. The exit is over there.”

The woman nodded and, after kicking another line of silver soldiers down, stepped in the direction of reality.

However, within the circle of truth within her vision, she saw that her figure hadn’t actually moved back, but instead to the left, “No, that’s not working. I suspect that this illusion is a little more complete than the sections around it, and that if you attempt to leave, you will walk around the circumference of the array, with the illusion perhaps even updating as you walk in circles.”

“Wow, this really is a good array. My friend would have hated to see this…”

“Okay. If you want to leave, I might be able to guide you out. Maybe. Don’t take my word for it,” she muttered, “Do you want to try it?”

“Sure!” the blue-haired girl said, grabbing her hand with ease, “Lead on!”

Yi Wei jumped slightly at the sudden contact, but as the girl maintained a casual smile and had far too firm a grip for her to break out of, she coughed awkwardly and lead her out slowly, looking around every few steps as to not lose her way.

While she attempted to focus, the girl ignored the terrain around her and instead her eyes wandered over every small detail of Yi Wei’s body.

“Ahem.”

“Can I help you?”

“I wouldn’t mind an explanation of what you’re doing.”

The girl looked confused for a moment before it dawned on her, “Oh, I’m just focusing on you so that the illusion doesn’t make me think I’m going in the wrong direction. It wouldn’t be too pleasant to get all confused about this stuff, so I decided to look at the person leading me.”

“Uh… You could just close your eyes.”

“Nah,” she disagreed, “If I do that, I’ll have to use my spiritual will, and then I’d just be getting more confused. Are we near the exit yet?”

Yi Wei sighed and turned back in the direction they were heading, “Based on what I can see, we’re almost there. Do you want to exit completely, or did you want something from within this area?”

“Just leaving will be fine, thank you.”

They crossed the edge of the array, and the illusion suddenly vanished. The swampland returned to its original state, one set of trees and dirty ponds vanished, and another appeared, merging the vision of the circle of truth to the rest of her sight.

The blue-haired girl blinked several times to recover from the sudden change, before nodding casually, “Yup, this is better. I like reality a lot more than the illusion. It felt a little off, if you know what I mean.”

‘No, I do not. Apart from the effect that occurred upon crossing the illusory boundaries, and the true vision I possessed via the Kong Mental Arts, I had noticed nothing that could be described as ‘a little off’,’ Yi Wei said in her head, before answering vocally, “If you avoid the general circumference of the array, you shouldn’t get pulled in again. Theoretically.”

“Alright, thanks for that. See you later, Yi girl!”

“Wai-” before she was able to finish a single word, the blue-haired figure vanished into naught once more, leaving her hand still warm from the other’s touch. She switched between the empty point where the girl had stood and her own hand a few times, before cleansing the latter with water-type planar energy. Whoever that woman was, her touch was a little too… strange to keep, especially when she might have applied some tracking technique to find her in the future.

‘I had intended to learn either her name or cultivation realm, and got neither… I could have brought it up at any time without seeming strange, yet I hesitated for no reason… Oh well, I can’t imagine running into her any time soon anyway,’ she comforted herself as she returned into the array.

A second look into it revealed a certain pattern within the structure, perhaps the most important one. She identified a certain correlation within the array nodes and the illusory reality it brought her into, which explained a little bit regarding why some illusions vanished after a single step, while others seemed a little bigger than others. In addition, the structure of the smaller sectors lacked the confounding element, while the larger areas had parts of them and a certain connection to the heart of the formation array, though she was unable to see what the connection delivered.

All in all, the clarification to the way this array worked brought her one step closer to comprehending the secrets of the Dao hidden within.

While she advanced, she re-entered the swamp, where the soldiers appeared to be busy with something else and thus didn’t interfere with her, then that tent again, where the man and the women surrounding him were still in the same place as before, then passed through them and entered a snowy field, devoid of all life other than her own.

The next area was, once again, a swamp, but she didn’t pass through it immediately.

Upon her entry, she caught a glimpse of a wild-looking figure, covered it dirt and grass, stalking through the high grass without much difficulty. Her immediate thought linked this person with the wild folk previously described by Yi Zheng’s subordinate.

‘So, unless that man had omitted a few details – which is likely, to be honest – then there are multiple connections to any one illusory zone, as observed with that strange commander’s tent,’ she thought, watching the wild figure go about his business, whatever that was, ‘I am curious whether any of them are capable of regular speech, or whether they are as fake as the silver and bronze knights the Kong family seems to be obsessed with.’

With the assistance of a simple stealth technique from one of Great Dark’s jade slips, Yi Wei followed the crouching figure while shrinking the circle of truth in her vision even further, as to not get disoriented and lose her target.

Slowly, she closed the distance between them, and when she got within striking distance, she examined his facial features and noticed a curious similarity to one of the servants from another group, whom she had not seen ever since they arrived in this valley. He was filthy and clearly not having the best time of his life, but it was still the same person, inside and outside the illusion.

‘Interesting. Either this segment is even stronger when it comes to its illusions, or I may have just found the missing group.’

Since this man was in the second realm, and thus did not pose much of a threat, she quickly decided to emerge out of the shadows and tap him on the shoulder, “Hey, do you know a Yi Guanyu?”

He leapt away from her in fright, his teeth chattering and his entire body quaking even after he noticed her clothing and the Yi character on her robes. He looked around, as if searching for an ambush or some other trap, then opened and closed his mouth several times before finally mustering a few words, “Are… are you real?”

“Yes.”

The man shook his head, “No, that’s what an illusion would say! Begone, you phantom! I will not submit to you!”

It was hard to take his words seriously as his shaking only intensified. His legs occasionally twitched, almost as if he was trying to run away, but his efforts produced no results at all. He glanced down when he realised that, and when he raised his head once more, his fearful expression had only intensified.

“That is also what a real person would say. Your question isn’t the best method for distinguishing reality from illusion,” Yi Wei pointed out, “Can you lead me to your leader?”

“I-I don’t have a leader! He isn’t located in a hidden camp behind me! Don’t even look there!”

‘I… I hope he was doing this on purpose, because otherwise he has totally lost his mind,’ she sighed, walking around him and then heading in the direction he informed her of, “The illusion might be broken soon, so if you are able to make yourself look presentable, now would be a good time to do so. Just saying.”

He provided no reply, other than the constant clattering of his teeth, so she continued through the swamp and the unusually thick flora in her way. There were three major layers of foliage obstructing her, but as she knew that she was inside an illusion, she was able to walk past them easily.

After passing the last one, she found the so-called camp, though it would have been far more fitting to describe it as a tribal village more so than any civilized camp. Mud and straw huts were placed haphazardly, all of which were clearly built by different people and at different levels of expertise, leading to some looking far worse than others. A sort of path snaked between them, formed by frequent footsteps, leading up to the only tent in this entire swamp. Even then, it was torn and ragged, looking worse than some of the mud huts.

Other than that, there were no people in sight.

‘Interesting. If I’m right, then that means that our expedition’s last group has been here for a while,’ she thought, before raising her voice and calling out, “Yi Guanyu! Can you hear me?”

Her voice echoed for a moment before a horde of the so-called wild folk burst out of the huts and the tent, quickly crowding up in front of her. Most of them looked as bad as the terrified man outside the camp, though a few were clearly maintaining their appearance with whatever means possible, although they still looked far worse than any random servants from the other groups.

“Are you from one of the other groups?” one man asked, though his voice was quickly drowned out by others.

“Are you real?”

“How did you get in here?”

“Can you get us out?”

“Will we be rescued soon? Is the elder aware of our location?”

The cacophony of voices went silent the moment another figure exited the tent. Unlike the rest, who resorted to wearing all sorts of random trash to cover themselves, this man was much like his tent, tattered and worn but still clinging on. His robes were damaged and patched up countless times, and the original colours that they had were completely gone, replaced with a dull brown and green, but the Yi character on his chest still feebly held on.

“Servant of Yi, which group do you belong to?” Yi Guanyu questioned, clearly attempting to appear imposing but failing miserably thanks to the leaves in his hair.

“I am Yi Wei, part of Yi Jiazhi’s group.”

He walked through the crowd that parted to give him passage, stopping a few steps before her, “You do exist, do you not? You are not some phantom, come to torment us again, are you? Do you know how to get out of here?”

“As far as I’m aware, I am real, and I’m not an illusion. In terms of leaving…” Yi Wei pretended to give it some thought, as to not appear out of the ordinary by easily declaring to be able to leave an illusory realm that has clearly taken those of a greater level months to deal with, before shrugging, “I’m not sure, but I have some understanding of illusory arrays, and I know that there is something in the middle of it that is keeping it going. If one of us is able to break it, the entire illusion will break.”

Her news clearly brought him a great deal of relief for a moment, as he emptied his lungs via a relieved sigh.

However, his expression stiffened soon after, “That is not necessarily going to be easy, will it?”

“No. However, most of the other groups are already here, and they’re likely to be going towards the crux of the array as well. Provided that they are able to overcome the illusion, they might be able to take it down.”

Naturally, she did not mention the fact that she was, potentially, the only one with that capability, as she intended to be dismissed by Yi Guanyu as to be able to pursue the Lock Obelisk herself.

“Most? Are Yi Fenwu and Yi Tai on their way?”

“I believe so, though the latter has a bad tendency of appearing and disappearing as he pleases,” Yi Wei said, recalling how he showed up and left the earlier meeting several times.

Yi Guanyu nodded, “Is that good-for-nothing, Yi Henghua, dead yet?”

She had to take a moment to reply in an entirely calm manner, “… No.”

“Damn. I can’t believe no-one has taken the opportunity to end her life yet, when her neck is so thin and weak, and when her body is so thin and lithe- ahem!” he coughed, his face gaining a red hue, “Is there anything else you can tell me?”

“I would like to ask something, actually. How long have you been here?”

“The sun here seems to not move exactly as it does on the outside, but we entered two days after we descended into the valley.”

‘Two days… That… That’s nearly two years! What in the heavens have you been doing in here? Surely, as long as all of you form a circle and walk outwards, then one of your will inevitably either bump into one another, damaging the illusion, or exit it, doing the exact same! How are you even more useless than Yi Jiazhi?’ Yi Wei could only limit herself to a neutral expression – or what she hoped resembled one.

Seeing that neither of them spoke, the crowd began to get a little restless. Some dispersed to do their own things, but a large number crowded around Yi Wei, likely excited about seeing a new face after two years of being stuck in an illusion.

They muttered various things around her, ranging from innocent to somewhat crass, but before it could escalate, Yi Guanyu spoke, “Since you have nothing more to say, go, return to your group.”

She took the opportunity to get out of there, first leaving in terms of the illusion and then reality, exiting that sector of the illusion and moving onto the next one. As she had spent a little too much time with both the blue-haired girl and Yi Guanyu’s camp, the likelihood of someone locating the Lock Obelisk had increased too much for her liking, so she sprinted through the illusions without taking in the sights. Woods, mountains, fields, hills, castles, cities, large fonts of earth fire and more were passed through without a second glance, until she crossed into the inner part of the array.

Unlike the middle part, which contained the seemingly infinite number of illusory realities, this only had one section that covered the entirety of the inner circle and was presumably placed around the Lock Obelisk.

It wasn’t a simple illusion either, but one capable of inflicting genuine harm on others. If there were any more bronze or silver soldiers, they could significantly injure the unprepared or the weak, which included Yi Wei. Her cultivation had not advanced as much as she would have liked, and even then, only certain types of illusions would even care about her strength.

Fortunately, those illusions that can damage intruders typically manifest themselves as those in the same realm as their attack potential, so if she had the ability to resist those attacks, she would also be able to oppose the illusory warriors.

‘Unfortunately, the potential location of the Lock Obelisk is obscured by an illusory light so powerful that even I cannot see through it. If it turns out there’s nothing there, this array won’t remain standing for long,’ she mentally threatened the formation array, even though she knew that it was likely that she would be unable to do any damage to it without resorting to extreme measures, ‘Although, if the Kong family had the spare resources to create such an enormous array as a simple distraction, then I can see why they ended up falling into such a bad state. Wasting so much on something absolutely pointless would naturally cause them to decline.’

She paused on the outer edge and split the circle of truth within her vision, formed by her mental energy, into several pieces, aiming to increase her awareness of reality while still being able to view the illusions with reasonable clarity.

With that, and a few defensive techniques prepared just in case, she continued her journey.

At first, it was safe. Nothing emerged from the sand dunes, and the illusory reality didn’t even attempt to make her feel particularly hot, keeping the temperature at the same level as it was in the swamp. However, the sky was devoid of all clouds, and the sun looked like it was boiling her surroundings, to the point that she was nearly convinced that she should be feeling some sort of immense heat slowly baking her alive.

‘Now I don’t know if my Kong Mental Arts are removing certain effects, or if- oh, I suppose I can ask… oh, not again…’ her thoughts were interrupted twice in a row as she first saw a figure among the dunes, and then noticed the colour of her hair.

At the same time, the girl turned around to notice her.

“Have you no sense of direction?” Yi Wei shouted first, charging up to her, “Didn’t I tell you how to get out of here?”

“Ah, Yi girl. Hello again! I seem to have stumbled into the array again… Hehe…”

“Ugh… What is your name?”

“Eh? I’m… eh… Lan Mei Xing?”

“You don’t appear to be very certain of that,” she pointed out, though that was of lesser priority than her next sentence, “Anyway, tell me this – how? How have you done this?”

“I wasn’t sure how close to the middle of the array I had been, so I had mistakenly walked right back into it. However, the first thing I saw was a swamp, so I didn’t realise anything was off until I suddenly appeared in a desert and a bunch of sand figures attacked me.”

“Sand figures?”

“Yeah, like those ones,” Lan Mei Xing raised her hand and pointed at something behind Yi Wei.

She turned around to find several tall humanoid shapes formed from sand slowly walking up to her. The moment she laid eyes upon them, they stopped in place, glared at her for a while, then suddenly accelerated, crossing the gap between them in a single breath, each one preparing an attack with their fists or legs.

In the points of truth, she could see that there were no sandmen bearing down upon her, but instead they were the condensed essence of a technique flying at her.

‘Skills of the fourth realm, no less. I can’t take a strike like that!’ Yi Wei understood immediately, using Dawn Sunlight Step, a technique she created to function as a weaker variation of the Storm’s Edge Dash, to get out of the way of the sand people.

They did not appear to be able to adjust their trajectory, so they flew past her original position and straight for the blue-haired girl. She waited for them to get closer, then lazily kicked in their direction.

An enormous burst of wind burst out as a result, colliding with both the sand figures and the technique essences within them, annihilating them immediately upon impact. Furthermore, the force of the attack travelled further, destroying the sand dunes and even striking the array paths below, causing the entire illusory reality to flicker momentarily before stabilising itself.

‘That was impressive,’ Yi Wei remarked, though she couldn’t help but frown, ‘And yet, I sensed no elemental energy within that attack, nor any particularly strong physique. Yet another strange detail about her.’

“So, anyway, that’s what happened. Would it be too tough for you to lead me out again, or do you want me to stick around, take care of the sand and wait until you find a way to take the illusion down?”

“If I lead you out of here, you’ll just find a way to come back in again, won’t you?” the blue-haired girl answered with a shy nod, so Yi Wei continued, “Then the latter option is better. If you could prevent any difficult-to-evade attacks from reaching me, I’d greatly appreciate it.”

“Got it!”

Lan Mei Xing said, vanishing the next moment.

‘She’s insane, but at least she hasn’t found some issue with me so far, or else I’d never stand a chance,’ Yi Wei thought, turning towards the centre of the array.

She proceeded through the desert, avoiding the deeper swampland in reality while also evading the areas in which technique essences begin to form, though the moment they did, Lan Mei Xing would reappear, punch or kick her way through the rising sand figures, obliterating them instantly before running off somewhere once again. It was impressive, but more importantly, it allowed her to slowly track down every minor movement of energy within her body and collect the circulation map of a powerful kick technique.

To see whether she would able to use it would require a place where the blue-haired girl wasn’t watching, or else her sudden duplication of her technique would raise a number of questions.

As she got closer to the middle, the number of technique essence attacks increased from two or three a minute, to a dozen every few seconds. Each individual attack did not take much effort for Lan Mei Xing to destroy, or for Yi Wei to evade them, but with that insane frequency of attacks, both of them were showing signs of fatigue and the inability to keep up.

“Damn, how many planar stones are powering this thing?” the blue-haired girl wondered out loud, drawing another curious glance from Yi Wei.

‘Interesting. I don’t think that knowing how larger arrays are powered is something particularly unusual, but… mhm, now I’m just grasping at straws here, aren’t I? That’s not good – I need to keep a level head, or else I’ll have another mental hiccup to address.’

Still, they progressed, until one step suddenly doubled the quantity of sand figures.

“Ugh, how does this work? Hey, Yi girl, is one of these illusions a, well, an illusion? Can I ignore one or two of these?”

“Give me a moment!” Yi Wei called out, scanning all twenty-four sandmen with spiritual will that she infused with the energy of the Kong Mental Arts, allowing her to move the circle of truth from her sight to her mind’s eye. “That one, that one – twelve of them are harmless!”

“Can you mark them, somehow? I’m fast, but twelve additional enemies are a little too much for me.”

She nodded, and briefly considered her options. Talismans or any other of the four great arts would not be helpful, as they all required time and great thought to create, so her only options were her cultivation and physique. The latter did not have any marking abilities, not so far as she knew, and thus the best choice would be either some variation of the Dawn Slicing Beam or simply shooting out small clumps of planar energy.

After analysing the energy cost of either option, as well as their visibility for that cost, in the very same instant that she began thinking, she willed for a dozen clusters of blood planar energy to burst out of her body, passing harmlessly through her robes before heading directly for the false sand figures. As someone in the second realm, she could only control her energy precisely within a small range, but it was sufficient for Lan Mei Xing to understand exactly who she was aiming for and take actions against the rest.

Meanwhile, Yi Wei leapt right into the path of a false sand figure, ignoring her mind’s warnings against it. Even as she was mere inches away from the sandman’s featureless face, she still felt some degree of fear from the potential of being struck by a technique of the fourth realm.

‘Come on, calm down! You know this is an illusion! Trust your judgement, you confused girl!’ she said to herself, resisting her body’s urge to shut her eyes.

Out of nowhere, she heard the sound of breaking pottery. The figure made of sand, which looked so imposing the previous moment, was scattered into nothingness by a single glowing crimson needle that pierced the sand and turned it back to a shapeless dust. It then returned to her heart, where it scattered into a single sentence.

‘That’s better,’ she read, watching as the red dispersed into nothingness, ‘Does… does the Red Phantom Flood have a will of its own?’

 

A burst of laughter echoed throughout the empty void, ten thousand identical silhouettes all sharing an amused expression. Their pupils of emerald flame lit up parts of their features, revealing the raised corners of their lips.

“What a silly thing to say,” their choir of voices instantly converted the silence of the darkness into a melodious, yet strangely vicious tone, “Nonetheless, no more help from me, girl. Bye for now.”

 

Once the excitement from the sudden activation of the Red Phantom Flood faded, she realised that her mind, or, rather, her spiritual will had changed on a small, yet significant level. In fact, it seemed to be a part of the same change that had led to increase in the range of her spiritual will earlier in the expedition, but instead of simply raising the density of it, it had also affected the quality.

The circle of truth within her sight expanded and stabilised, allowing her to view more of reality at once.

With this advantage, she sped up, evading the next series of fake sand figures easily. At least for now, her mind seemed to be working slightly faster than before, so she put it to good use by looking out for the smallest signs of the generation of an attacking technique essence, then changing her movement trajectory ever so slightly to prevent it from having any chance of harming her. Once the blue-haired girl noticed what she was doing, she also began to ignore more of the figures, vastly increasing their pace.

Like that, running from several dozen true attacks and several thousand false ones, they crossed another boundary, transforming the world around them from desert to a flat, empty rock, with a black sky above them. There were already a number of individuals there, most of whom wore the Yi robes, though a few did not.

The rock appeared to form a floating round platform, in the middle of which stood an enormous pillar of light, surging out of the stone and soaring into the empty heavens. Behind it, within the circle of truth, Yi Wei could see the vague outline of a Lock Obelisk.

“What is this place?” Lan Mei Xing whispered to her, though she seemed to quickly realise that there would be no reason for Yi Wei to know that, “Do you know any of these people?”

“A few. I’ll ask them if they know anything.”

She looked through the small gathering of people, and could not find a hint of Yi Tai, Yi Guanyu, Yi Zheng or Yi Fenwu, though Yi Henghua and Yi Jiazhi had miraculously found their way to this stone platform. Naturally, she headed to the one that was easier to converse with.

“Excuse me, Yi Henghua, could you tell me what’s going on here?”

Yi Henghua was a little distracted when she approached, but when she finally realised that she was being spoken to, her first words were, “Oh, voyeur girl. You made it into here as well.”

‘Really? That’s your memory of me? I… I don’t even know what to say,’ Yi Wei suppressed the twitching of her lips and repeated her question, “I won’t comment on that, but could you enlighten me as to what this place is?”

“I think there was something about an arena. Some floating letters appear now and then, so-”

Right at that moment, a blue surface lit up in front of her eyes, a few lines scrawled across it by someone with poor typographical skills, ‘After a certain number of participants is reached, duels will begin. The winner will claim the crux of this array, and a great prize. Usage of all equipment is permitted.’

Yi Wei nodded, “I see. Then, I shall leave you to your thinking, Yi Henghua. I hope I won’t have to face you.”

She began her walk back to the outer edge of the stone platform, when she decided to take another look in the direction of the pillar of light, and the array beneath it. The nodes and channels in the very centre of the enormous array were far denser than those on the outside, and as numerous, if not more so, but no matter how much she looked through them, she could not identify even a single array that would create a solid, impassable barrier.

‘Doesn’t that mean… heh? Heh.’