Path of the Ascendant

“WAKE! UP!” Wei Yi shouted directly into Meng Chu’s ear, causing him to awaken with such vigour that he nearly fell over in his chair.

“I’m awa- huh? What? Why did… why the fuck did you yell at me like that?”

“So that you wake up on time, obviously. You are required to appear before some important individuals shortly, and you need to be fully awake for that. Furthermore, I didn’t use the loudest voice I could have, so your ear should be, and is, fully intact.”

“Ugh… this is the exact thing you should be avoiding when it comes to keeping your underlings happy.”

“I am. I’ve not yelled at anyone other than you yet. Even Dugu Wei and Qiu Sheng haven’t had this treatment yet, so, in a way, you could consider yourself to be fortunate,” she joked, retreating just a little to avoid being in his striking distance, “Now, go on. I don’t know what the typical habits of someone in the prison realm are, but you should complete the equivalent of your morning routine.”

“You’ve been here for a year…”

“Fortunately, I don’t have to touch whatever vile means you use to keep yourselves relatively clean thanks to my physique energy- oh! Right, physique energy. How has your progress been with the Secondary Meridians technique?”

Meng Chu nodded, giving her his final version of the manual, “Since you instructed that I shouldn’t attempt to use it by myself, I have not done it, but the technique itself should be complete.”

“Alright, let me have a look…” she said, reading the first page while using her spiritual will to scan through the rest of the modified manual, “I can tell you that you have made several dozen mistakes in the writing itself, unless I’m overestimating you and these are all actual mistakes, but the technique seems to be mostly effective, with only two slight mistakes. I can amend these sorts of things for you, though your initiation into the technique will need to wait until the end of our conflict with Ding Wen and Shi Luo Feng.”

“Understood. Do you have some means of enabling me to activate my physique, then?”

“I do have a few ideas, but it will come down to experimentation, as well as finding things that are comparable to the medicinal ingredients of the Planar Continents. Hopefully, Ding Wen will have a number of them within his treasury, which we can then use for you and your troops,” Wei Yi said, “Unless there’s anything else, I’ll be going to speak with the troops.”

“No, nothing else. Nothing about your plan has changed while you were cultivating the last few days, right?”

“Everything’s the same as before. Any changes that might occur will be around the second and third days, since the initial operations that we will be running are the safest ones – for us, of course,” she smiled, leaving the room as inconspicuously as possible.

From there, she travelled to a sort of armoury that had been within the underground passages even before she had taken over the faction, though she had also convinced everyone to utilise this place a lot more often than before, labelling it as the definite location for the soldiers and guards of the faction to gather and for major announcements and speeches to be performed.

There, she found the majority of the room being occupied by warriors, all of them being there due to the orders she had passed down through Dugu Wei a few weeks earlier.

Those warriors were clearly uncertain of why they had been asked to gather, nor where their vice-leader was at this moment, but the moment that they witnessed Wei Yi come to the front and cough to get their attention, a small number of them recalled their previous interactions with her and understood that there would be yet another odd, yet strangely effective mission for them to tackle under her command.

In fact, those warriors didn’t even know what her role in the faction was, as she had only ever been introduced as a tactician and someone who could get things done that even the strongest amongst them could not handle.

“Hello, everyone. I am Wei Yi, and for now, I’ll say that I am in a position equivalent to your vice-leader. I’m here to explain the current plans to you. As you are aware, we are soon going to be cooperating with Ding Wen on a mission to eliminate Shi Luo Feng – and as some of you may have guessed, going against him is also on the table. Now, restrain that man there, that woman there, and that…”

She listed off a series of targets, all of whom stood out when they displayed a strange reaction upon hearing that statement. Whether they were just surprised to hear this after maintaining a peace with the other two factions for so long, or if they had some interest in preventing such a scenario, or even if they were spies from Ding Wen’s faction, she couldn’t allow for anyone to slip through, so she ordered that they were to be lined up in one place, with every other warrior keeping an eye on them. Some guards were reluctant to obey, but those who had previously fought against Wei Yi, and now knew that she had gotten stronger again, silently convinced them to do as they were told.

“Excellent. Now, I will just ask you lot some questions, and if your answers are satisfactory, you will not be violently torn into many pieces. Maybe. No promises,” she said, assuming a dignified pose with her hands behind her back, “Now, listen carefully, you scum.”

All of a sudden, her figure in their eyes warped and transformed, the shadow behind her growing and stretching until it seemed to be as tall as the Beast would have been in its prime. Two crimson embers glowed within its eye sockets, a bright ruby aura surrounded all of the dark body, and an endless quantity of killing intent revolved around both her and the shadowy manifestation of her, making every one of the soldiers that witnessed this tremble.

“Are you affiliated with Ding Wen or Shi Luo Feng?” her shadow asked, glaring at all of them.

Some instantly shook their heads, others trembled, but two felt their heads nod despite their knowledge that they should never reveal the truth to anyone.

“Do you intend to harm Meng Chu’s faction?”

Those two nodded, but a few others joined them. Perhaps they had some personal motivations to go against the faction, or perhaps they wished to change sides for whatever reason before having come into contact with their new potential employer, but it was confirmation, nonetheless.

“Do you have any thoughts of rebellion against your master?”

Only one more joined the traitors, so Wei Yi withdrew her killing intent, but not before briefly turning to the rest of the soldiers and striking them with an instantaneous wave of it as to ensure that if they had any similar ideas to those she was interrogating, but kept their reactions concealed, that they would know that it was not a good idea to cross her.

“Get rid of the ones that nodded. The rest of you can re-join the briefing for now, though you are still under suspicion. Don’t give me an excuse to repeat the procedure, unless you want to die.”

There was no argumentation from them, especially not when they tried to move from their current position and saw that rather than standing on solid stone, there was now a thick layer of rock dust beneath them due to the immense crushing pressure of her crimson light.

The fact that they were somehow unaffected physically by such a force was outright miraculous.

One of the soldiers she had picked out but did not get a reaction out of did originally consider potentially changing sides, depending on the situation he observed within Meng Chu’s faction and how it compared to what the other factions were capable of, but any such thoughts were instantly eliminated when he remembered the dark shadow that appeared behind, and was connected to, Wei Yi. How could he possibly go against such a terrifying monster?

“Now, to discuss the plan of action. All of you have a certain power structure, do you not? Order yourselves according to it,” she instructed, ignoring the scared expressions of most of the warriors.

All of the men and women did so, resulting in seven individuals standing at the front, with three or four standing behind each one and between fifteen and twenty-two standing behind them. With such a formation, they barely had enough space to fit within the armoury, forcing them to huddle rather close to one another.

‘It seems that they follow an arrangement similar to that of an army. If I, Meng Chu or Dugu Wei had instructions to give, they would be provided to the one in charge of the squad or battalion, who would then pass it down to the most suitable individual amongst their ranks,’ she thought, examining all of them closely with her spiritual will before she chose to ask the leaders themselves, “You lot typically have something you’re allocated to do, correct? Tell me, starting from left to right.”

“Yes, boss!” the first captain, a short-haired woman with a face that had more scars than skin, replied, “I am Wang Shi, and I am typically in charge of simple patrols around the city!”

“An Jin,” a man with several metallic teeth pointed to himself, “We handle… troublemakers.”

“I am Chun He, at your command,” the third captain was a man that lacked any exceptional features that instantly drew the eye, though this could be said to be a noteworthy feature on its own. He performed a basic semblance of a salute before continuing, “We’re responsible for special protective missions on VIPs and important members of society!”

“Master Wei Yi, I am Hua Ju. Some of my men went with you to dispose of the intruders on the battlefield outside of Beast’s Rest,” said a woman who was entirely bald, with one large burn scar marking her left cheek, “My men and I typically dispose of bandits that dare to approach our town.”

“Boss, I am Lei Fu. I am mostly responsible for hunting hatred automatons and recovering various dead plants and herbs from outside of the town,” a man said, with dozens of strange black marks and scars on his face and body moving with every word. Some of the marks were clearly evocative of animals and beasts, while others had no clear purpose nor inspiration, seeming like the drawings of a madman or a lunatic.

“I’m Ru Rong, and I lead any missions that are aimed to assassinate unseemly individuals. I… may or may not appear in the brothel, if you’re interested…” the sixth captain, a female dressed in black cloth and silk that completely covered all of her body. Beneath those clothes, she had fiery red hair and a soft face, though it was not one that Wei Yi was acquainted with.

“My name is Wen Ya, Boss Wei. I have been given the responsibility to ward off any potential invasions into Beast’s Rest and have already warded off two during my employment here. The first invasion was from a small force from the Great Bone Lake, while the other one was from the Council of Crimson, supposedly done by a force outside of their control, though I suspect that it was actually intended to test our strength after Shi Luo Feng and Meng Chu took over from their single predecessor,” explained a tall, strong, muscular woman dressed in full metallic armour, with a single diagonal scar marking her otherwise average face, “We are all capable of tackling most missions within Beast’s Rest, however.”

“Excellent. Chun He and Wang Shi, you’re going to be the first force. Hua Jiu, Wen Ya, you’ll be the second force. An Jin, Lei Fu, Ru Rong, I will place you into the third force. You share specialties, so you will do best at similar missions. Now, let me explain what we shall be doing in the next few days…”

 

The man in white pointed towards a point on Ding Wen’s chest, saying, “Now, take all of that immense killing intent and focus it throughout your body, starting with your heart and then going outwards to your head and limbs. Avoid filling your head with an excess of it lest you want to lose your mind but be sure not to have a single point on your body that does not contain killing intent. Otherwise, you will never reach the Hatred Augur realm no matter what resources you have.”

“I… know… that…” Ding Wen answered, blood marking his mouth from when he accidentally bit down on his tongue.

“Then limit the quantity of killing intent flowing to your head, you fool! No matter the contract, I will not be able to cleanse your body if you taint yourself with killing intent to such a great extent. You do understand my words, do you not?”

“I… do!”

His crimson energies momentarily burst out of his body, wrapping his clothing and flesh in illusory red armour that was shaped like one of his most commonly used sets of armour. It flickered out of existence quickly, dispersing into raw crimson that barraged his physique and tore through clothing and skin incredibly easily, like a hot knife slicing through butter.

“Focus and advance!”

Ding Wen shut his eyes and focused, his killing intent gathering to form and rapidly break down weapons made from pure energy, all of them focused on the singular weapon he chose to form for the Searing Torch realm.

His mind was unstable, incredibly so, ready to fracture on any minor stimulus, until a book appeared within his consciousness, one that he recognised well after storing so many things within. A small, blue, crystalline sphere emerged from it, energy of an identical colour and texture flooding out of it. It poured into every crack, hole and gap within his confused mental landscape, where memories of two worlds clashed with one another, and sealed it all together, colouring the entirety of his mind in soothing azure. Then, a secondary burst of energy pulsed out of the crystal and into his heart, marking it.

All of his hatred and killing intent flooded to it, dying his flesh and blood as it did so, filling the mark until it grew into a Hatred Scar, a concentration of one’s journey to the fifth realm, and the anchor that permitted one to be within it. Crimson light rapidly surged out of it, coating his skin in solid red armour that actively radiated dominance and tyranny. No matter who looked upon this sight, they would never claim that this was not the Hatred Augur realm.

“You’ve… done it!” the man in white exclaimed, though his voice lacked the certainty that it should have had, ‘I felt his mind unravelling as we spoke… How did he…’

“Indeed, I have. Now, I may speak with Meng Chu and see if he even dares to consider betraying me.”

 

“And so, your instructions are simple: force 1, you are to take every mission that can be deemed as defensive. Follow all of my earlier orders without any deviation unless you’re interested in fucking over your faction, though you are permitted to make adjustments if you can tell that the situation is clearly not matching up with my predictions. Just be very sure that you aren’t misreading the situation.

“Force 2, you will be attacking several minor established locations belonging to Shi Luo Feng, so be sure to attack quickly, without a trace, and following my earlier guidance. In fact, so that I don’t repeat myself again, all of you, just remember that the moment you deviate from any of my plans, you are the one at fault. If you manage to succeed or improve the situation, you’ll probably receive praise from Meng Chu and possibly me, depending on my mood, but the moment that you negatively affect the outcome of our plans, you are guaranteed not to be rewarded and may even be demoted. Is that clear to all of you?”

All seven guard captains nodded; the memory of the scene created by her killing intent still fresh in their minds.

“Excellent. In just a little while, you will be getting your orders, which I will also examine closely. I will allocate certain things to certain people, while I will leave the rest down to the seven captains. If you have any complaints… you can shove it somewhere and forget about it.”

“U-Understood…”

“Now- uh?” Wei Yi turned her head and silently examined something with her spiritual will, “Give me a second. Await further orders and don’t act like idiots while I am away, alright?”

She stepped outside and, almost by reflex, pinned the woman she found there against the wall, keeping her jaw shut so that she did not start spouting random nonsense. It was Dugu Wei yet again, except she looked extremely distressed and exhausted, with her robes being drenched in sweat and other, notably less pleasant fluids.

“What in the heavens happened to you?”

“M-Master… that knife cut… is so scary…” the woman cried, her expression being completely unsuitable for her typical stoic and bold character.

“What are you talking about?”

“The dagger… strike… I walked into it… and…” she was unable to get any more words out of her mouth as tears filled her eyes, covering her face in seconds. Clearly, the experience was significantly more stressful and unpleasant than anything she had encountered before.

‘I am pretty sure that the dagger strike itself, by which I mean the mark on the wall, nothing more, shouldn’t have been impactful in a way that could harm a veteran of the prison realm to such an extent. That must mean that there is something in the construction of White Echo that I’ve missed despite all of my efforts… at the very least it is an effect that could be used to my benefit, rather than being a completely negative effect. This is something I can work with, though every use of White Echo would lead to that area being completely uninhabitable, unless the aura decays with time,’ Wei Yi thought, scanning White Echo with her spiritual will in an attempt to locate the reason behind such an effect but failing, “Alright, calm down and get yourself looking presentable. You’re going to appear in front of your troops soon and having such an appearance wouldn’t help you in the slightest.”

“Yes, Master…” Dugu Wei said, cleaning her face with the sleeves of her robes, “Could you not leave more of those marks on the wall?”

“I’ll try to avoid it, though if you find any more random cuts in the wall, I would advise you to walk around them and avoid them just in case, for it is likely that if it has not been cleaned up, it is probably something that has been caused by White Echo. Tell your partner about that as well, unless you want her to share in your experiences. Anything else?”

“No… Could you-”

“Do you not know the answer already? Perhaps later, but for now you need to present the final orders that you have received from Meng Chu. If you don’t get going, you’re going to have to wait for another week-”

“I’ll get going immediately, Master!”