Path of the Ascendant

She kicked her last opponent to the ground and siphoned away his physique energy, her bright mood dampened ever so slightly due to the fact that she found that, no matter what she did, she was unable to drain the energy of those that weren’t yet dead, nor the external energy of those that were able to use it that way.

Nevertheless, that was a minor point in comparison to the fact that she had found not just one, but two physiques that were able to recover the vitality in other entities and was able to activate both of their effects within her True Ascendant physique.

There were three such physiques in total that she had found within the body cultivator camps, but she was only able to activate the Restorative Spring and Vitality Siphon physiques, while the Energy Pylon, another yang-type physique that fit her purposes, happened to be rarer and was only found in one cultivator of a low rank, preventing her from achieving her desire of having a complete set of similar physiques that could be put to use to different situations, depending on which one was most appropriate.

Even though that did not happen, she did happen upon another physique called the Glimmer Heart in surprisingly large quantities, allowing her to attain it as well.

It had no great effects nor was it particularly beneficial to her overall strength like the Golden Form and Grim Mortality physiques had been, but it did have the effect of limiting or outright cleansing poisons or toxins from her system while strengthening the heart and circulatory system significantly, adding to her already present ability to negate poisons with her physique energy.

Unfortunately for her, she needed to gather the vitality of another in order to pass it along to the dried herbs, and even though they were only one star in terms of quality, they would still need a significant quantity of energy to recover.

Still, there were plenty of camps left behind for her to gather physique energy and vitality from, with the latter only being gatherable while the supplier is alive whereas physique energy can only be gathered from the dead. This meant that the endless fields of grain that she could gather would provide her with two resources at once, which was a deal that most farmers would appreciate greatly, especially due to the free nature of the harvest that allowed it to cultivate itself.

‘What is with all of my comparisons to farmers and crops as of late?’ Wei Yi asked herself, glancing inwards to find that the mysterious characters were not reacting in any unusual way.

There were no intruders within her mental landscape, nor could she see any foreign thoughts infiltrating the library. That meant that the influence, whatever it was, was originating from an external source and wasn’t trying to outright change her mind but was instead acting much like how a sight of something familiar would cause one’s mind to be drawn towards it.

Her discovery forced her to delay her plans of attacking another camp, and instead made her explore the surroundings. The first time she had ever considered anything through the perspective of a farmer was when she had approached the Great Bone Lake, so it meant that the area of effect was rather large.

That was both to her benefit and deficit, as the large area of effect meant that the energy was rather distilled and insignificant for someone with a stable mind like hers, but it also made the source significantly more difficult to notice. It wasn’t like a light that would get dimmer or brighter depending on how close she was to the source, but a very occasional sound that was faint wherever she stood and no matter how much she tried to listen.

She frowned, ‘There is also no clear effect on the energy around me, much like how the physique energy of the Devil General bypassed my attention. Damn, this is- eh?’

 Right in front of her was a flat, shimmering surface, floating an inch above the ground without any movement nor distortion. It was stable, strangely so in a realm full of killing intent, hatred, violence and domination, none of which tended to make for stability. She drew closer to it, approaching it carefully and with a layer of defences prepared to deal with any potential threats that may originate from it, and saw that it slowly seemed to change from a featureless plane to a window, or perhaps some sort of translucent and flat container, for a scene that depicted a still mother and child, with the latter being held by the former.

It was a most peculiar sight, and one that she couldn’t help but touch after some preparation.

Instantly, the flat surface shattered, a perfect sphere appearing from it and growing rapidly until it encompassed Wei Yi and a five-metre radius around the area from which it appeared. As it moved, the world that it touched transformed, changing from perpetual crimson to green grass that couldn’t have possibly existed within the prison realm.

A little further away from her position, that same mother and child were in the same position as before, except that they were three-dimensional and, slowly but surely, beginning to move.

The mother had long red hair and grey eyes, with large assets and a pleasant figure, albeit not the most athletic one. Clearly, this person had not engaged in much physical activity as of late, which made sense for someone who had been carrying a child for nine months.

After standing in place for a while, looking upon her child with a pleasant smile, she suddenly turned around and faced someone outside of the sphere, someone that was neither audible nor visible.

“Yes, this one understands, my dear husband,” the woman said, probably replying to the invisible person, “Thou need not worry, I shalt never attempt to go beyond my station. My only interest is my child.”

Whether her husband was or was not satisfied, he must have left, for the mother quickly turned back around and focused back on the baby. She stood for some time, perhaps waiting for her husband to go far enough away, before she sat down on the grass and quietly whispered to the child, “Do not worry, I shalt never abandon thee for thine family. Grow strong, Kong Shi Meng.”

Wei Yi suddenly shook – if the sphere had been born from her own mind, it would have certainly shattered due to the immense shock.

Kong Shi Meng! This was a name that she had only heard once before it had been completely forgotten within the Planar Continents, with the only trace of it that remained existing within the Kong Holy Grounds and the arrays that surrounded the Lock Obelisks.

To find it here…

The woman reached into her pockets and took out a dried stalk of grass, sighing as she did so. “Those elders could have spared a living stalk of Meridian Nourishing Grass instead of forcing me to use my energy,” she muttered, so quietly that the baby wouldn’t have been able to hear her.

Then, a soft energy came out of her hand, covering the grass stalk in extremely smooth planar energy. However, it was not metallic silver, flaming red, grass-like green, earthy brown nor the blue of water. No, it was the same shade as pure planar energy in fluid or solid form, the same colour that could be found within planar shards and stones: purple.

‘Pure planar energy? No, that can’t be it… It is somewhat similar to my unstable planar energy, except there is no such instability, while the effects of it allow her-’

She couldn’t even finish her thought before the grass stalk visibly began to recover, the time around it seemingly being reversed as it gained a certain vigour. Once it was at a suitable state for the woman’s purposes, she crushed it using that same energy before feeding it to her child.

‘This isn’t only an insane coincidence, but an excellent opportunity for me to acquire a different method of achieving the same goal,’ Wei Yi thought, calming her mind as to not continue to be aghast at everything, ‘Everything I see is automatically added to the library, of course, but I will only be able to experience this in person once, and I must make sure that I never waste it just because there is something that I cannot yet understand. This kind of hesitation didn’t directly lead to, but most certainly didn’t help during the confrontation with the Great Family members and must have restricted me so many times in the past.’

Wei Yi focused on the purple planar energy – though it should be noted that it was not of the same shade nor texture as the cosmic gaseous energy provided through the technique of the mysterious characters, but a far more flat and constant colour, completely unlike the constellations that one may find in the night’s sky – and observed as much as she could about the entire process of the usage and transformation of energy, for every single detail could contribute not just to the recreation of the regenerative technique used by the woman, but also assist in the stabilisation of the wild planar-type energy that she had long been unable to use for any longer than a few seconds without dealing significant harm to herself.

If she managed to make it more stable while maintaining or even enhancing the power of it, she would have a far better chance at breaking out of the prison realm with it, for the Mysterious Planar sub-technique was most suitable for tearing apart the fabric of space itself.

The scene of the mother holding the child persisted for a little while until it slowly dissipated, although the glass-like sphere around her remained in place.

It was only then that the true nature of the Meridian Nourishing Grass finally came to her, once she was calm enough to process the matter, ‘Right, the grass was a dull red in colour, with stripes of grey… That is certainly reminiscent of the six-star herb known in modern times as the Great Physical Amplification Grass… It seems that, if this is a true portrayal of Kong Shi Meng’s situation in the past, then the Kong family had access to far more Great Physical Amplification Grass than most families do now, except that it could be acquired in a dried form more frequently than in the living form.’

Slowly, the sight before her changed, though the main participants remained. The mother had aged slightly as did her child, who had grown from being roughly one year old to about four or five years old.

They were sitting inside of a building, with sunlight pouring in through an invisible window to their side. The mother sat on a chair while the child was on the ground, two books placed in front of him. One was labelled, in extremely archaic characters, ‘Principles of the Five Elements’ while the other described the ‘Nature of Planar Cultivation’. It wasn’t immediately clear whether these were intended to be two pieces of reading material for the child, or if they were intended to provide him with a choice, so Wei Yi tried to scan the books with her spiritual will and confirmed that she was unable to penetrate the surface of the book to read the text within.

‘It seems that I’ll need to follow the script, so to speak,’ she thought, kneeling down between the mother and child.

“Ah Shi Meng, could you tell mommy which one you’re more interested in?”

The young child looked at both books, scanning their covers with a surprising amount of intelligence in his eyes, and then raised his head to address his mother, “What’s the difference between them? Is one better?”

“Well… there are two paths in cultivation. One is to use the natural energy that is all around us – planar energy – and use it for yourself, without attempting to transform or modify it. It has some strengths, like being able to interact with all elements equally, but is isn’t too common. You probably won’t find any materials for cultivation past the Marked Core realm,” she answered, glancing at Kong Shi Meng every few seconds to ensure that he was understanding everything that she was saying, “The other relies on refining the energy you absorb into one of the five elements. It is used a lot more and can benefit from areas with a high concentration of elemental energies. Your Kong family specialises in water-type cultivation, for example.”

Although the explanation appeared to be a little too complex for a child that age, little Kong Shi Meng nodded confidently and reached out to open the book on his left, the ‘Nature of Planar Cultivation’.

His mother sighed quietly at this, though she did not stop him, as when he flipped through several pages of the introductory chapters, he looked to the other book and did the same, his little face shifting into an out-of-place frown for a few seconds.

“Mom, could you give me more time? I’m not sure yet…”

“Don’t worry, thou doth not have to choose anything yet. Thee will only be able to cultivate from the age of ten, and thou shalt have all the time before that to consider tine decision. I think that thine friend, Lan Jia Hao, wants to go down the route of elemental cultivation,” the mother said, looking out of the invisible window.

“By the way, is there a foundation establishment stage? Are there Daoists out there? Is there a mystical red fruit that can make your body invincible?”

The mother smiled, giggling quietly, “Thine imagination is incredibly varied already, Ah Shi Meng. There is no such realm by the name of Foundation Establishment, though thou could call the Energy Condensation realm that, if it strikes thine fancy. There are indeed some who practise the Dao wholeheartedly, on the eastern continent. As for fruits- Oh, thine father is coming again. I will come back in a second, Ah Shi Meng.”

The child nodded, but the second that the mother turned around, he looked back down on the books and began reading them again, doing so far more quickly than before.

Unfortunately, Wei Yi could only gather a few more pages for herself before the scene turned into nothing once more. It did give her a few more hints about what was happening, namely that these scenes had to be connected to someone’s memories, and those memories were bound to belong to someone. Based on the way that the sphere tended to surround the young boy, she supposed that these were the memories of Kong Shi Meng.

‘Since his time, all traces of pure planar cultivation appear to have vanished from the world, except for the Kong Mental Arts and the Gilded Library, both of which harness energy that is similar but incomplete in comparison to what the mother was able to display,’ thought Wei Yi, glancing at the glass-like dome around her.

There were several cracks appearing within its surface, and each one was growing with every second.

Eventually, an image returned, this time with the mother sitting at the very edge of the scene while two boys, roughly nine years of age, sat opposite one another and were playing some sort of game. Judging by their actions, Kong Shi Meng appeared to be winning every time, though if one looked at their expressions, the grey-eyed boy appeared outright bored while the blue-haired and red-eyed boy was getting more and more excited with every single time he lost.

“You’re so cool, bro Shi Meng! Again!”

“Alright, I think that’s enough, Lan Jia Hao. My son is getting tired, but he’s just too shy to say anything,” the mother said in a soft voice.

“Oh, come on, Aunt Shi Ming!” the kid replied, “I’m sure Boss Shi Meng-”

“When did I become your boss?” Kong Shi Meng finally said, “Mom’s right, I am a little tired. Could we not play something else? We can play chess, checkers, go or anything else, just not rock, paper, scissors! Okay?”

“Aw… Didn’t you say that you’ll need to make those yourself?”

“Yes, so, for now, you can go,” the grey-eyed boy said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you!”

The blue-haired boy ran out of the scene, and it was somehow only then that the only other blue-haired person she had even met came to mind. Lan Mei Xing, someone who shared a surname with the boy, and seemingly belonged to another nigh-extinct family, with the Lan family perishing a thousand years after the Kong family, with their district still being known to the world and currently occupied by another family.

The fact that they shared the same striking features meant that they had to have some relation by blood, even if it was ancient, distant and insignificant.

‘Wait, that Lan Mei Xing also used techniques with pure planar energy, meaning that she might have inherited some of the techniques from this time period! They must have been far more powerful than the techniques of today, which makes it odd that the planar path was apparently less liked than the elemental path,’ she thought, returning her focus to the woman and child.

“Mom, can I look at the manual now?”

“Ah Shi Meng… I know that thou art very bright for thine age, but thee must still be careful. Thou shoulds’t not begin to cultivate until thou art ten years old, at which point thee will be granted another choice between the-”

“I know that, mom,” said the little Kong Shi Meng with a degree of confidence that did not suit a child such as him, “However, I am sure about what I am doing. The path of planar cultivation is right for me.”

“Perhaps thou art correct, my dear,” the mother said, taking out a manual labelled ‘Path of the Initiate’, “Take it, but the second that thou feelt’h anything wrong, I will help thee. Was chess that game that is played on a black and white grid?”

“That’s right, mom.”

“Then I will get started on making it for thine friend, so be sure to join me later to make sure I don’t mess up thine idea. It would also be great if thou could explain the rules to me one more time, as they appear to be very intriguing,” ‘Aunt’ Shi Ming said, getting up from her seat, “Do remember to call me if thou art in need of my help.”

However, the second that she stood up, the child’s attention was on the technique manual. He flipped through it with speed that almost rivalled Wei Yi’s initial visits to the library after the activation of the characters, then shut his eyes the second that he had completed the process.

What he did not notice was that his mother had not gone far, standing within a doorway and observing her child. Rather than pointing out her presence, she simply watched, a smile slowly growing on her face. It was not a malicious expression, so far as Wei Yi was able to understand, but one of motherly pride and satisfaction. She understood this expression, in a way, since her child’s understanding of complex manuals at such a young age was impressive, regardless of the reason for this achievement. Kong Shi Meng could have been a young prodigy, someone who was just lucky, or even someone blessed with the knowledge of the ancestors, but the mother was proud to have him either way.

The scene changed once more, prompting Wei Yi to scan through her Augur’s Library to figure out why something about ‘Aunt’ Shi Ming’s name seemed so familiar.

‘Shi Ming, Shi Ming… Yi Shi Ming… The woman mentioned in the introduction to the Kong Mental Arts? That… This is something that seems rather far-fetched, but… The prodigal child of the Kong leaves their family at their hardest time, not willing to associate himself with them, and leaves behind techniques that specifically ask them not to be returned to his ancestors, while mentioning a woman who she does not expect to have any further children… Kong Shi Meng, the child of Yi Shi Ming, could be the same one that created the Kong Mental Arts!’ she mentally exclaimed, the possibility being extremely striking to her, ‘Perhaps he knew that he would leave the world before his mother due to some conflict or battle that he engaged in, and so he wished that any of her children would be protected by the one that benefits from his technique, hoping that their gratitude would ensure their compliance with his request. By the heavens…’

Around her, the glass-like dome was cracking faster and faster, with only one scene appearing before it finally broke. Yi Shi Ming was watching her prodigal child display his progress in his cultivation now that he was roughly twelve years old.

Before it shattered into nothingness, Wei Yi was able to observe that in comparison to what she was able to read about the Path of the Initiate, the energy he now displayed was of a far higher quality, and significantly higher in quantity than it should have been. In other words, he was not necessarily practising a different technique, but most certainly a superior version of it.

‘Frankly, I don’t think that I can improve a technique to such an extent if I am given three years, even if I was present at a time with significantly more advanced knowledge of the world… Furthermore, the knowledge demonstrated by the young Kong Shi Meng, as well as his general mannerisms and actions, suggest to me that his mind is significantly older than his body, hence his boredom when he was interacting with his friend. I could tell exactly what the kid would do hours before he did it, so it isn’t surprising that someone with the experience of a past life would be able to do the same…’ she thought, before arriving at another conclusion, ‘It is possible that this child is akin to Yi Henghua, in that they are both from another world, as it would then make perfect sense for him to have a whole host of curious ideas, like that chess, checkers and go games, as well as the questions he had asked when young… mystical red fruit? I had one of those…’

Still, despite all the signs, Kong Shi Meng appeared to be far more sane than Yi Henghua, perhaps due to lacking a technique that actively worked to deteriorate his intellect, or perhaps due to him not having come into contact with it yet. As far as she recalled, though Yi Henghua had been born pale and extremely poorly, her mind had not broken until she found the Fairy of Dust technique, which set her on the course of her imminent demise at the hands of the family.

Perhaps it was this same curse of the other world that caused Kong Shi Meng to abandon his family, though that was not necessary based on the circumstances of their relationship.

She stored all of the information she had acquired in a specific shelf of the mental library and departed, rushing towards a physique cultivator camp in order to acquire a certain quantity of vitality for herself. While the technique displayed by Yi Shi Ming was incredible, it was completely unsuitable for her, for she could not manifest planar energy yet no matter what she wished to do.

It was a possibility for her to adapt the technique for physique energy, however, and increase the efficiency of vitality usage in the recovery of the dried herbs, as she was fully capable of using physique energy for all kinds of techniques, albeit it would also warp their effect somewhat, much like how killing intent created the Antithesis Palm and the physique energy created the Yang Elysian Palm, while if she had somehow obtained the yin variation of her physique, she would have attained an extreme Yin Elysian Palm, which would freeze reality itself, rather than transforming it into a sun.

The closest camp of physique cultivators was on the other side of the container of miracle fluid, so she consumed a little more of it and travelled towards it.

When she reached it, she found a total of nine people, seven men and two women, gathering in the middle their tents for a lengthy discussion. It wasn’t a particularly interesting one, as they were currently considering where to move and which small settlement to make into their target.

Once again, this led to them being rather focused on their activity, to the point of allowing Wei Yi to approach them rather effortlessly.

“I believe that the lands around the Council of Crimson should be the most vulnerable at the moment, as they are currently in the middle of some internal strife, or so I’ve heard,” said one of the men, portraying a higher than average level of intellect for the physique cultivators of the Great Bone Lake, “It’s far from here, but we will pass Beast’s Rest, so we should be able to acquire some food from them as we go by.”

“But the Beast’s Rest’s people are all stupid!” another presented his wise argument.

‘Truly, the greatest of retorts…’ Wei Yi resisted the urge to mutter this so that she wouldn’t alert them to her location and kept listening.

“We don’t need to stay near them for longer than an hour or two before leaving, just so that we have enough time to purchase food and some blood wine,” the first individual also replied, glancing at his fellow bandits to make sure that they hadn’t been convinced by the fool’s attempt at argumentation, “Furthermore, every main settlement has a number of camps around them, just like ours. We can attack them and gather the crimson motes that the killing intent cultivators use as currency, then trade it in and leave without needing to work for our resources.”

“Seems smart,” a shirtless woman said, her chest contained purely by a horizontal strap.

“Great, then-”

“I think the Seekers of Blood or the Cranial Domain is a better place to target, though,” she continued, “We won’t be able to harvest motes of killing intent on the way to the former, but they are far more open to our sort. Some of us could easily earn enough to feed the rest of us, like me with my Concentrated Humanity physique-”

That was enough to convince Wei Yi to act, for the Concentrated Humanity physique was not just extremely unique, but it was amongst the greatest human-type physiques known to her and all of the Yi family, unless there were a list of physiques not provided to the common servants.

She sprung out, manifesting two separate forms of energy around her palms. In her left, she concentrated her killing intent, while the right contained all of her True Ascendant physique energy, causing the former to be consumed by absolute darkness while the latter lit up like the blinding sun, instantly splitting the bandit camp into two. One was thrown into a terrible nightmare, with a great figure standing before them, about to unleash a deadly attack upon them, while the others saw the sun itself – something that they had never seen before in their lives – descending upon them with extreme and absolute haste.

“Guys, mo-” was all that the strap-wearing woman managed to say while she was also activating their physique, causing a strange form of darkness to emerge from within her.

These two energies fell upon the camp, temporarily blinding even Wei Yi, forcing her to rely upon her spiritual will to judge the situation. Six of the nine were either disintegrated or killed in an instant, but three remained within the cover of the Concentrated Humanity physique energy, which completely prevented the passage of her spiritual will.

Since she wasn’t sure of the exact effect of this barrier, for it came from physique energy that had not been cultivated within the Planar Continents, she simply approached while the Antithesis Palm and Yang Elysian Palm dispersed.

When they did, so did the black and white physique energy, receding into the abdomen of the bandit woman. Based on that energy, it was clear that this woman was within the Impermanent Permanence, the third realm, of physique cultivation, which not only significantly amplified the natural effects of the physique, but also meant that the woman had a body that was significantly more powerful than that of any normal individual.

‘I want to resolve this quickly, but this is such a good source of vitality…’ Wei Yi considered the better choice for a second before concluding that she would be able to handle the bare-topped woman for long enough to absorb enough of her vitality to recover one set of ingredients for her first set of pills, prompting her to leap forward, though at the last second, she switched her direction and grabbed a woman to her left, activating both the Restorative Spring and Vitality Siphon to rapidly absorb a significant quantity of her lifespan.

Within just a few seconds, that bandit’s skin dried and her face aged rapidly, working at a far greater pace than it had for the last few physique cultivators that had used it.

The Concentrated Humanity physique cultivator – who shall be referred to as Ren Xing from now on for the sake of clarity – tried to pull her friend from Wei Yi’s grasp, but it was too late, for Wei Yi released the woman herself now that she had little more vitality to provide. As Ren Xing herself realised this, she did not care to grab the elderly woman as she fell, instead releasing her physique energy to form a layer of energy around herself.

Now that there was no more visual interference in the form of two clashing forms of energy, it was clear that her physique energy was not just pure darkness, but more of a strange, twisted mirror of her actual form.

Faintly, that odd darkness revealed thin streams of energy flowing throughout the body, in the exact place as the meridians, suggesting that this was not just some mirage, but that the physique energy of the Concentrated Humanity physique transformed the body itself into an extreme, concentrated essence of humanity itself, resulting in it being an extreme yang physique despite its appearance.

‘Whatever this ability is, I just want it even more now,’ Wei Yi thought, noticing that all forms of the physique energy were able to stop her spiritual will. In the future, outside of the prison realm, this would be an incredible ability to have in the fight against the Greats.

She activated her physique energy and circulated it throughout her meridians, causing her physical strength to be significantly amplified. Once again, she charged directly at Ren Xing, but this time she did not rush away to another target, instead drawing back her fist and using the full weight of the thin metal band around her wrist to invoke as much force into her punch as she possibly could. The solid mass of humanity, with her features highlighted and outlined by bright while light, retaliated with a punch of her own.

Their fists collided, the sun meeting with the dark dregs of humanity, with both ignoring the damage that both of them would suffer as a result.

Bones cracked audibly during the collision, with both of them being thrown back by a few steps. Ren Xing seemed to be shocked by this, but Wei Yi was not, taking advantage of this opportunity to rush towards the other living member of the bandit group. As she passed by Ren Xing, she managed to strike at her again, but her fist collided with the Grim Mortality veil and was forced back, with a thousand white spectral cuts appearing on the surface of the darkness energy.

Wei Yi grabbed the other survivor and drained their energy as well, covering both of them in the Grim Mortality veil as to prevent the Concentrated Humanity cultivator from touching either one of them. Ren Xing did desperately attempt to break through, but just before the veil cracked, there was no more vitality within the third survivor.

“You bitch!” the humanity sprite finally said, a maw appearing within the head of the darkness, “Why are you attacking us? What did we do to you? What do you need that vitality for?”

“The same thing as you lot, really. Survival and power are my goals, and I require your lives for that.”

“Then, surely, you’ve had enough? Leave!”

Wei Yi shook her head, “My apologies, but this much isn’t enough for me. I will need your life as well. If you give it up nicely, you may be able to retain your physical integrity.”

“Are you insane? I… ugh… What if I tell you about a secret treasure in the wastes?”

“Secret treasure? What is it?”

“One of the bones from the Great Bone Lake, one that I can barely withstand. A blood stone that holds a lot of vitality, far more than I do. Even a large technique scroll that holds some kind of powerful physique art!” Ren Xing exclaimed, her guard dropping somewhat, “You don’t need to kill me!”

“Hm… I could agree to that. Tell me about it.”

“No! You must first swear that you will not attack me afterwards! By the heavens, the earth, and the prison realm!”

‘Is that sort of thing even effective? Will there be a killing intent-filled thunderbolt flying at me from the sky if I was to break this oath?’ Wei Yi wondered, though she did not show her curiosity and instead nodded, saying, “I swear by that which I hold most dear that I shall not betray their expectations and go against my word.”

The humanity sprite seemed to frown at her odd phrasing, but she was unable to determine any flaw with it and reluctantly nodded, “Fine. It is to the east of the Hold of the Mighty, and south west of Beast’s Rest. I had been there once and took nothing, so I’ll be-”

Before she finished talking, both Ren Xing and Wei Yi leapt at one another once more, with the former manifesting a blade from her physique energy with which to strike at her foe. The latter not only expected such a move, but she also acted specifically to deal with it, using the Repealing Spark move to deflect her left-handed jab with her right arm while she removed White Echo from her clothes and infused it with the plentiful killing intent residing within her left arm. At the same time, she activated the killing intent-equivalent of Storm Blade Wreathing, causing the energies within the dagger to split into two individual strands, one seemingly converting everything seen through it into the opposite colour while the other was pure crimson.

When she jabbed with the dagger, stopping only an instant before striking the surface of the humanity sprite, the twin energies burst out of the tip of the blade, the Antithesis energy reverting the immense protective power of the Concentrated Humanity physique into nothingness while the Crimson Storm passed through that gap and tore through Ren Xing’s flesh and blood, carving out an enormous hole in her chest.

Wei Yi grabbed her the second that the physique energy began to disperse, draining her vitality quickly.

“N-No… how-”

“Don’t waste my energy,” she interrupted her, “If you’re referring to my so-called oath, however, then even if there would have been an effect, I never swore that I wouldn’t attack you, only that I would do what I expect myself to do.”

Her words, in combination with the fleeting physique energy, ended Ren Xing’s life, prompting Wei Yi to absorb her physique energy and activate that ability within her own physique.

‘Even with that wound, that was a lot of vitality. I might have enough for two attempts now…’