Path of the Ascendant

In the end, she returned to the establishment owned by the plain man several hours later, finding that the three in white were obediently sitting on their beds, with Hao Gang shivering while the rest occasionally glanced around nervously before they noticed her approach.

The second that they did, however, the nervous looks intensified tenfold.

“How have you three been? Had a good rest?” Wei Yi asked, prompting them all to nod their heads furiously.

“Yes, boss Wei, we did!” Hao Gang answered for all of them, clearly having recovered some of her energy without any of the previous fearlessness that she had exhibited, “We’re ready to leave at any moment, so long as it is convenient for you!”

“Good. See, you could have just started with this, instead of all of the nonsense you forced me to go through. Furthermore, since I was rather impressed by what I had gotten from you lot, I might have even provided something nice to you, but you know what happened in place of that…” she sighed, making the three shiver as they recalled the stories that Hao Gang had told them of her experience, “Anyway, get up and let’s go. Don’t try to run away, or else.”

They did not seem to need the reminder, as they leapt onto their feet and arranged themselves into a basic military formation, intending to obstruct her as little as they possibly could.

This was indeed convenient to her, so she didn’t comment on it and instead left the room, a small smile appearing on her face when she observed them following her at a very precise distance through her spiritual perception. It made things easier for her, though it was a shame that she couldn’t easily attain the same level of obedience from others with a shorter, less damaging process.

She brought them out of the building and threw a minute mote to the owner of the establishment to compensate him for the inconvenience she had caused. That kind of quantity wasn’t too significant – it was the most worthless type of currency she could have possibly provided to him, after all – but it was still more than she needed to, or was even obligated to give the owner, as she could get rid of his shop whenever she wanted if she was not pleased with him due to her position as the one and only leader of Beast’s Rest and was thus free to interact with whoever she wanted, however she wanted.

Even if he wasn’t too happy with such a thing, he didn’t have anywhere else to go.

Wei Yi brought them to the inner walls of Beast’s Rest without any unpleasant interruptions, taking them through the front gate and then happening upon Wang Shi, who was on a break from her duties outside of the inner walls and was thus available to take the three figures in white to the underground passages and place them into a secure room that didn’t look too much like a prison cell, as Wei Yi feared that it might be a little too much for their minds to handle at the moment.

Now that the figures in white were within the custody of another person, she headed straight for her new office, which she had placed no bones into as the current excessive quantity of the Beast’s bones that she possessed would instantly melt any paper or parchment that entered their area of effect.

For this reason, instead of having something that was purely focused on practicality and function, as her other room – which was still in use for the purposes of cultivation and the usage of the Endless Calculation method, and little else – had been, this office was more focused on the aesthetic side of things. It was larger, and whenever someone entered, they would have to approach the main desk through a direct path surrounded by a number of trophies and unique items that she had taken out of the House of Gold due to their general lack of function for her purposes.

In addition, the desk was also on a platform that put it above the typical height of a person, meaning that most of the people who entered would always be looked down upon by Wei Yi, and would certainly be below her if she decided to stand up and speak to them in that way. With some strategically placed shelves behind her, she was also able to make her entire figure appear significantly more threatening.

When it came to speaking to most of the guards that commonly traversed the underground passages of Beast’s Rest, this wasn’t necessary, as they were very familiar with her capabilities and had likely come into direct contact with her killing intent at least once, either due to some test directed by her or due to accidentally stumbling into one of the killing intent planes created by White Echo before she had recognised the effect that the weapon had and taken steps to avoid harming the minds of people other than Dugu Wei, who had initially exposed the issue to her.

However, Wei Yi believed that if she was to ever speak to an ambassador or a representative from another major faction, like the leaders of the Council of Crimson or the warlords of the Great Bone Lake, then the atmosphere created by this office would prevent them from being too certain of themselves when speaking to her, perhaps leading to them being more ready to agree to things that would be advantageous to her.

‘That’s something to test out some other time. For now, the question of which faction is most necessary for my plans to succeed is still more important,’ she said to herself, taking out a map of the left side of the prison realm and unfurling it on her desk, ‘I’ve had no prior interactions with these, except for visiting the outskirts of the Great Bone Lake, so to get a better idea of this lot…’

At this moment, she spotted a guard passing by the door to her office, so she raised her head and called out, just softly enough to be heard by him, “Warrior, step in for a moment.”

The man froze for a second before complying with great haste, almost leaping into her office so that he would not appear to be shirking his responsibilities or disrespecting her in any way. This was slightly unnecessary in Wei Yi’s eyes, but she didn’t care to address it, instead telling him, “Go to Meng Chu and tell him to come over for the next hour or two. If he doesn’t believe you… show him this piece of the Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival.”

She tore off a small fragment of the robes and tossed the piece of fabric over to the man, carefully observing the process of recovery that the clothes underwent as she did so. Although the guard was rather confused by the entire situation, he nodded and departed immediately.

‘I might need to make some kind of disposable identity token so that I can pass it on to other people in the future, perhaps with a function to instantly destroy any of them if I find that they are being misused for things that I did not allow the holder of the token to do, or perhaps include something that would allow me to monitor their location and their surroundings…’

Before she could contemplate this for too long, Meng Chu entered the room with a piece of crimson fabric in his hand, which, after noticing that it was indeed torn from the sleeve of her robes, he returned to her without hesitation.

“This was still a nicer way of calling me than your typical approach, so I won’t complain…” Meng Chu complained under his breath before raising his voice and saying, “You called me here for something?”

“Naturally. Since Beast’s Rest is expanding, I intent to take this opportunity to rethink some of our relations with other factions and interact with them beyond the occasional bit of trade. In slightly less vague language, I intend to either remove them from the map, turn them into our direct allies, or take over and add them into the territory of Beast’s Rest,” Wei Yi explained, ignoring his widening eyes as she continued, “You happen to be most familiar with these factions, so I wanted your input on this. Since my ultimate goal is to break out of the prison realm and defeat the Greats while reforming Yi City, tell me which factions would be most conducive to such a route.”

“Heh… that’s difficult. Do you have any priorities in regard to the form of energy you wish to side with? If it is of significance to you, the Council of Crimson, Seekers of Blood and the Cranial Domain would be your natural selections.”

“Yes, but if it was that simple, then I would hardly require your input. However, I have no such interests. I wish to side with those that will bring us closest to freedom, no matter what energy they use.”

He considered things for a second before noticing the map on her table, “Do you mind if I take a look at that map? It’ll probably be easier if I draw some kind of chart or diagram to explain exactly what all of them might have.”

“Do go ahead. I happen to be fond of such things, and it might help to have it written down in the future,” she replied, moving her chair over so that he would have enough space to stand beside her.

Once he climbed the steps to the raised platform and stood beside her, he took out a piece black chalk-like material and drew a few symbols on the map to denote some things about the factions that he then began to explain, “These ones denote the energy used by the faction, which should still be relevant to you if you require more than one of them to damage the storm walls. Then, this one indicates how they get along with one another, or what kinds of alliances they have formed.”

According to his indications, everything remained as it had been when Wei Yi first learnt about these groups. The Council of Crimson still opposed their close neighbours, the Hold of the Mighty, the Cranial Domain was still quiet, the Great Bone Lake was still driven by madmen and the Seekers of Blood continued to prevent anyone from nearing their location. The only significant difference was a new point to the very west of the prison realm, close to the storm walls. It had no name, nor any kind of flag or regalia associated with it, resulting in a simple question mark adorning the map.

“What does this indicate? Is there some other faction there?”

“Right, I had forgotten to share this with you, but there have been sightings of some kind of organised group there by our scouts. However, we have not found their home base, nor who they are,” explained Meng Chu, tapping on that point of the map several times, “The rumours vary from them being actual planar cultivators to hatred automatons, so neither I nor the creator of the map could be sure.”

“Understood. Both possibilities would be incredibly interesting, so I will certainly need to visit them to make sure, especially if they have some kind of grudge against any of the other factions. Now, continue.”

“What ought to interest you is the unique pursuits of these factions – their trump cards, or their ultimate techniques and artefacts, or even stranger things. The Great Bone Lake, for example, appears to have a total of three such trump cards, those being the Skeletal Manifestation, a monster they can conjure from the many bones at the cost of the physique energy of a dozen powerful experts, the Pure Unified Form, which is an ancient ritual to unify the power of their physique cultivators into a single person and significantly enhance them temporarily, and then they have something known only as ‘The Ultimate Stratagem’, with no other information being available to us.”

Wei Yi raised an eyebrow at this, “None at all?”

“No. We wouldn’t have known anything about it at all if a physique cultivator hadn’t stumbled into a brothel while drunk and spilled all of the information he had to one of our prostitutes during their session,” Meng Chu confirmed, “He then died from excessive alcohol consumption.”

“… Right. How do these things compare to the rest of the factions? I suspect that the Seekers of Blood would have some kind of bloodline-based art that transforms them into powerful beasts at the great cost of their own sanity, like in the tale of Chao Jianhong, the Lady of Ashes, and that the Hold of the Mighty will be able to stimulate their physique for a similar result. Is that roughly accurate, or is my perception of them entirely incorrect?”

“Both of the trump cards you’ve described are indeed possessed by those factions, though the Seekers of Blood have a secondary method of creating an alchemical lifeform from the Beast’s blood, while the Hold of the Mighty own two unknown methods of similar power. One is said to be a mysterious martial art from the time of the Master of Yi City, while the other is entirely unknown.”

“Does this lack of information extend to the Council of Crimson and the Cranial Domain?”

“No, as Beast’s Rest has previously been in conflict with both of these factions for various reasons. To begin with the simpler one, the Cranial Domain has exactly one tactic that we are aware of – the Skull of the Beast itself. With the combined forces of physique and killing intent cultivators, the remaining energy within it can be mobilised to eliminate all approaching foes with relatively few casualties on their side, so far as we are aware. On the other hand, the Council of Crimson revolves around the eponymous council, and every single one of their secret weapons is in some way connected to them,” he explained, drawing another question mark beneath the Council’s location on the map, “Unfortunately, although we know that, we have no clue what the technique actually is. It has manifested many times before, yet every single time it was different, meaning that there are either dozens of methods at their disposal, or an incredibly versatile one.”

“I see… Make sure to list every single one of the moves witnessed so that I may have some chance, no matter how minor, to decipher the truth of the matter. Depending on what their technique is, it might either be easy to circumvent or adapt for our own use.”

“There is already a complete list of every battle between the Council of Crimson and every other faction out there, so I will have it brought to you at a later time. However, I don’t think that we will be able to do much with the technique ourselves unless you know of several people with similar prowess to you, as it has only ever been witnessed in use when no fewer than six of the council members worked together.”

‘Naturally, I do not, but… the Red Phantom Flood might be of some use. However, I was barely able to use it for a single second, so unless the technique owned by the Council of Crimson is something that can be used in such a brief amount of time, I will need to practise far, far more before this idea can become reality,’ Wei Yi thought, wincing involuntarily as she recalled the experience.

Despite using the technique several hours ago, her mind still felt as if it had been torn in two and then put back together without anything to keep them there. Her mental domain seemed to be undamaged, so she wasn’t too concerned about this, but she was almost certain that if she repeatedly used Red Phantom Flood several times in a row without allowing her brain to recover then there would be incredible detrimental effects not only to her mind, but potentially to her entire body, as her first few attempts to use the Red Phantom Flood did result in physical pain as well.

“That will depend on exactly what the technique is, but I might be able to provide something in the right scenario,” she said, deciding to remain vague for now, “Then, these numbers here…”

“They’re my opinion on which factions you should prioritise. Naturally, some will be able to provide us with significantly more than others, so I have added these numbers based on this. As you can see, I consider that the Council of Crimson has the greatest potential to offer you what you want, then the Hold of the Mighty and the Seekers of Blood, then the Cranial Domain and the mysterious faction and the Great Bone Lake last.”

“Is this due to the significant mindlessness of those in the so-called Beast’s Ass?”

“Please don’t start acting like Ah Qiu… but yes, that is the reason. The most you will achieve by forming some alliance with them, if you succeed in such a pursuit at all, is a bunch of strong men and women and some insights into the possibility of torturing yourself for greater physical might. I highly doubt that this will contribute to breaking the storm walls.”

“Perhaps it will, or perhaps it won’t. You can let me be the judge of that,” Wei Yi said as she resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his assertions – her physique energy was perhaps her most powerful form of energy, matching the second realm of her planar cultivation on the very same day that she awakened it. If not for the True Ascendant physique, she would have never been as successful in her battles against the warp of the Kong Holy Grounds and would certainly lack any options for shattering space within a spatial realm.

To label knowledge that could further empower such an immense force as lacking in potential clearly displayed that Meng Chu had not yet understood the true power of the right physique, though that fact also reminded her of the Secondary Meridians Technique, and the fact that she had still not found something suitable to forcefully invoke physique energy within him the last time they spoke about it.

“By the way, do you remember some of those Physical Invoking herbs that had been discovered recently? Bring some of them to the pill refining room, and I might be able to create an imitation of the Earth Physique Awakening pill for you to use to create a secondary set of meridians.”

“Um… are we doing this now, or after we decide on our plans?”

She shrugged, “Does it matter? There are two years for us to conquer the left of the prison realm, and the conquest itself shouldn’t take more than one year and eight months, meaning that we have another four months to consider it and to ponder the best approach. A pill only takes an hour or two to make at most with my particular techniques, so I don’t see why we shouldn’t attempt this as soon as possible. After all, if you acquire a physique that is useful for these plans, or something that helps you think and plan, you could genuinely contribute in the future.”

“I hope you don’t intend to make such random jabs at people other than me… Nonetheless, I suppose that you are right-”

“That is only natural. Come on, let’s go.”

They rose and headed towards the alchemical room, though they split mid-way through the journey so that Meng Chu could retrieve the necessary materials while Wei Yi headed straight there to prepare the room for her work.

Although that might sound somewhat engaging, all she needed to do was ensure that the conditions for forging the pills were as poor as they could possibly be, as to allow for the greatest result upon the usage of Antithesis energy. Since this was a room that only she used, and since every single instance of refinement ended up leaving behind various impurities that would typically be cleansed before the next instance, all she really needed to do was get into the correct mood to shake off the traces of perfectionism that occasionally attempted to sprout within her mind.

Due to this, when he returned several minutes later, she had already managed to do everything and was thus engaging in casual conversation with Bai Hao.

‘- and so, there were a total of three of them. So far as I understand things, the Sensory Scanning Array is still fully functional and effective, allowing them to observe the growth of this side of the prison realm with high accuracy, perhaps with a bit of the delay,’ she decided to inform the man in white to get a few more fragments of memories from him.

‘Is that so? Fortunate. If only I could witness any of the process, perhaps I would be more keen to share knowledge with you, as I currently know almost nothing about what is happening to those three. For all I know, you’ve killed the lot of them and are now lying to me.’

‘I’ll show you them later, though I must say that you have grown in the time I forgot to talk to you.’

“Here, I have gotten you the exact quantities of these herbs for the Earth Physique Awakening pill,” Meng Chu said the second that he entered the room, unaware that she had been conversing with another figure as he did so, “I’m assuming that the refining process has become less dangerous since the last time I witnessed it?”

“Indeed, it has. Still, remain on the other side of the room for safety purposes,” she said, shoving the man in white back into the tower as she took the things from him and tossed them into the furnace.

After setting them aflame with her physique energy, she remained silent for a while before throwing a palm at the pill furnace and inverting the mess that this process caused into a set of Earth Physique Awakening pills that were no weaker than four stars.

“No matter how many times I witness this, I can’t shake the feeling that this isn’t proper refining.”

“It works, though. Honestly, if this wasn’t the most effective method I had, I wouldn’t be doing this either. The pill furnace is going to require some repairs soon as a result, and wouldn’t be in such a terrible state if I could create pills in the typical fashion… Nonetheless, let us delay the actual process of forming your secondary set of meridians just for a little longer. I want to set up a few arrays in preparation for it…”

“Are you planning something dangerous?”

“No, not dangerous. I just want to make an enormous killing intent storm to further stimulate your potential and ensure that the best technique possible is awakened.”