Path of the Ascendant

The figure that Heaven’s Will presented lacked many distinguishing features, being closer to an abstract concept of a human being with many notable features – eyes, mouth and ears being among them – absent from the body. There were also no signs of a gender or age, though that was to be expected given the lack of anything else.

It stood before her in a similarly neutral pose, letting her take everything in at her own pace, whether deliberately or not.

“These are the Planar Continents? Are we actually here, or is this just an illusion of them?”

“Technically, there is no significant difference to where we stand, so we now stand here. Once we have finished, we will have been standing elsewhere. I don’t think either of us wish to be interrupted at the moment.”

“Indeed. It is good to see that the world is flat, though I can’t imagine that the water constantly pouring off the edge is efficient,” she commented, forcing her right hand open and quietly licking up some of the blood that had accumulated on her palm, “Is the reason that people can’t escape the continents that there is nothing out there? You simply put up a barrier after a certain point, so that you wouldn’t need to have more than two continents?”

“It is to protect you.”

“From the Hunger of the Beyond? Where are they, anyway?”

It didn’t respond, lifting one arm lazily to vaguely point behind her, prompting her to turn. Right away, she understood what the oddity she gazed upon was.

A sea of dark masses, with numerous eyes gazing out, surrounded the Planar Continents, and it seemed that the stars were not points of individual light, but instead regions where some greater light source was able to shine through the endless sea of the Hunger of the Beyond. It was a rather daunting sight, especially when taking into account the amount of trouble a single Hunger of the Beyond had caused to them. Fortunately, she knew not only that she wasn’t in danger at the moment, but also that she had a chance of defeating the foes beyond the ordinary limits of her world.

“You should know what I want to speak to you about,” the Ascendant said, turning back to the figure.

“I understand you have a number of grievances and… disagreement with my deeds. I will listen to you, for that is the least that I may do.”

“Well then, tell me why you had never once denied the words of the Great Leeches. They would constantly proclaim their allegiance to the heavens and their will, so a word from you should have gotten them to stop, yet you either did nothing, or let them believe that they were right, perhaps even confirming their ideas.

“You let them do as they wished, burning away the work of Kong Shi Meng year after year, letting the world plummet in energy density and development, even while you clearly have an interest in the world’s state. After all, you showed up before me, and you provided aid in defeating the Primordial Deities. If you didn’t care, that would be one thing, but you have shown time and time again that this is not the case,” she said, “As I see it, you let the world be a playground for otherworldly demons and the gifts they possess, the latter more so than the former, even when, as the will of a world, you ought to have enough power to stop this, to wave them away, to seal the world from intrusion if other forms of resistance aren’t possible. Why do you let all of this happen?”

“Those that bring the otherworldly gifts into this world are more powerful than you think.”

“So?”

“You may not understand that resisting them is imposs-”

“I don’t care! I was told that fighting against those a realm higher was impossible, yet I kicked their asses regularly. I was told that defeating the Great Leeches was impossible, that they had the will of heaven at their back, yet I have obliterated each and every one of them! I was told that I could not defeat the Primordial Deities, that I couldn’t ever kill them, yet I have accomplished both!” any hints of her previous calm tone crumbled quickly, giving way to her fury, “How can you, a will of a world, stand before me and be so spineless?”

“That is all I am. In comparison, they have many worlds at their whim. The Elder Ones, the Old Ones, they can end me and this world as easily as you would kill one of the Great Leeches. I have no choice but to let them do as they wish.”

She recalled the words left behind by Kong Shi Meng. ‘They see you. They watch you. They will use you’. Such things had seemed to point at the Hunger of the Beyond at first – when she had learned of their existence – but now it was plain that most of that could not apply to an enormous swarm driven only by hunger. Instead, a force that had existed for far longer and had pushed people and powers into the world without being recognised for millions of years was far more fitting.

However, that did not change her response.

“No choice… No choice?!” crimson filled her eyes as smoke manifested around them, seemingly even to the surprise of Heaven’s Will, “You fucking dare to say the same thing as the Yi Patriarch? Is this some joke to you? NO FUCKING CHOICE?! SO THIS IS WHERE THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEAVENS WAS MOST PROMINENT. IT MADE ALL OF THE WORLD’S COWARDS!”

“It isn’t the same-”

“We all have a choice! I made it long ago, and I pushed onwards even when all signs pointed to failure. I knew the risks, yet I believed that I could make Yi City a better place! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”

The figure got no chance to reply.

“You see a world you supposedly care about being played with by some old monsters, and you simply sit there, doing nothing? Is that what you believe to be the best approach? You would let everyone die for you, time and time again, just so that you don’t have to risk yourself? Have you even thought about that bullshit?”

“Everyone in the world would die if I failed!”

Her killing intent was hardly abated by such a claim, for it reminded her of her former Patriarch all the more. That man was clearly weak, but he was not presented with many opportunities to refine himself into something decent. He had only lived for a few thousand years at most, whereas the thing before her had existed for a million years at the very least, though she expected it to have lived for billions of years if the Planar Continents had existed for as long as the worlds of the otherworldly demons.

“And people aren’t dying due to what you’re doing? The Primordial Deities had previously slaughtered countless millions during their previous reigns, and the Hunger of the Beyond is ready to devour anything in its path. Otherworldly demons appear in the bodies of others, replacing those that may have had bright futures, and they burn through the world and their own bodies and minds while barely understanding a thing that they do. Worse yet, you know this is happening. You can’t claim to be ignorant, and that you would have done better had you known.

“However, you don’t have a clue whether you might succeed. I thought I’d fail at some point, yet success kept coming my way, through my own efforts and outside intervention. Meanwhile, you would rather let your cowardice control you and simply hide in a corner, letting others do as they wish.”

The figure said nothing, but this did not calm Wei Yi either. Rather, it just seemed to further display its spinelessness, something unacceptable for an entity like it. Worse than the general incompetence of Heaven’s Will was the fact that their every deed since obtaining the power of the Truth of the Universe, back when she knew it as the Mysterious Characters, conflicted with the path she had chosen to walk. She had risked her life, and that of others, believing that she could make things better than they were.

She, someone that had begun as a mortal woman with many challenges put before her by her own faults, and the deeds of others, did more than the very world she lived in.

It seemed so absurd that she wasn’t even sure whether she could be angry, though that only made her more furious. Something about the space seemed to restrict her cultivation, as she would have otherwise broken through to the ninth realm with her killing will a long time ago, and perhaps she would have found a tenth realm soon after.

“Tell me, now that you’ve stepped out and done something, would you run away again if those Old Ones were to appear and demand that you let them fuck the world over yet again?”

A lack of a response continued to speak loudly for it. Heaven’s Will might as well have simply stated that it would gladly kneel before the Elder Ones and let them do whatever they wished if there was even a hint of danger, and even though she knew that it would say that very differently, it didn’t stop the fury within her body and mind from finally boiling over. The smoke and crimson paled in comparison to the force she found within her fist, and it was only at the last moment that she decided to strike the void beside her instead.

Even that left a mark – a crack akin to one that could be produced in a pane of glass. It restored itself quickly, the many shards seeming to move themselves into place, though she hardly expected to leave a more permanent mark on the world.

“This was a waste of time. I could have been attacking Primordial Blood and preparing for the arrival of the Hunger of the Beyond, and I imagine I could have found a way out of Primordial Corruption’s grasp rather easily even without your intervention. Instead, I have simply been profoundly disappointed by meeting a pathetic thing like you,” she said, withdrawing her smoke-like killing intent with great effort, “Get me out of here before I find my own way out.”

With the silence of Heaven’s Will continuing, she saw the world return and the void beyond fade away, putting her back where they had left off.

 

Primordial Corruption’s power was still lingering in the air, and it seemed like she hadn’t been away for longer than an instant, for little had moved around her. Having seen the truth of the figure supporting her, she was far more motivated to move forward, so she grabbed all of the energy around her and forced it into her body and her dantian, ignoring her body’s significant dislike of the matter.

After a moment, she understood that her body wasn’t wrong, for Primordial Corruption’s might was absurdly great in comparison to its peers. Furthermore, due to the development of the Entropy Rift, she needed less energy to break through each stage than before, so all of that energy wouldn’t be contributed to a single stage, or two at most, but instead to a maximum of three, for breaking through to the ninth realm in one would be impossible with only the energy of a Primordial Deity. She would need more than that, far more.

Quickly, the seventh stage came to her, and it was as she predicted, mainly increasing the potency of her energy and further contributing to her Entropy Rift in an imperceptible manner, as it would be difficult to rise beyond the current level without something absolutely momentous.

That was fine though, as the eighth stage was already pushing the current capabilities of her body. With nothing to do but raise the quantity of energy, she was being overwhelmed with more and more oblivion essence that flooded her flesh and blood, something she was only able to endure thanks to her True Existence physique ability, though even that was beginning to be challenged under the pressure, causing audible crackling beneath her skin.

The encroaching ninth stage was even more challenging to handle, yet the standard benefit of her oblivion essence continued to apply even now, desperately attempting to make up for the damage.

Her other forms of cultivation had to follow, and thus, after her body was pushed to the limit, it had to develop the physique abilities that were most useful to resolving the problem, pushing her True Existence ability to the third and final state – Absolute True Existence.

It affected her many other physiques as well, pushing Alloy Form, Blooming Cosmos and Celestial Regalia into the next stage, advancing two to the second to last stage, and one to the last stage. Together, they provided her with a vast improvement to her ability to handle energy, and thus her cultivation could finally advance to the ninth stage, resulting in a total of six breakthroughs within a short span of time.

At the end of them all, she was feeling odd, almost ethereal, as if her flesh was partly transformed to pure energy.

By no means was this a significant enough change for her physique or overall capability, but it was somewhat similar to her dantian’s transformation. This was in line with her understanding of the potential transformation of the body to something capable of manifesting an azure light – or equivalent thereof, as she still didn’t understand them sufficiently to know whether they were a manifestation of energy at its purest form, or just one form of advancement that she could pursue – though it hinted at something else, something that might be a very good thing for her.

There was a chance that her various forms of energy would obtain a greater form of unity, though that would have to wait until she reached the ninth realm. Only then would she actually be sure that her assumptions had any validity, and that her various ideas were correct. For now, most things were still just guesswork, albeit with good evidence.

‘So, ninth stage, at the boundary of the ninth realm. Let me guess…’

She glanced towards the Huang District, where she could now clearly feel the energy of a Primordial Deity radiating outwards. In part, this was due to the boost to her divine sense, which was essentially pointless to calculate in full, but there was also a sudden appearance of numerous entities in the lower seventh realm on the edges of the district. With their rushing forces moving simply and straightforwardly, she suspected that they had misunderstood the district’s situation.

Had it been disorganised after the attacks of the Primordial Deities, and the strongest defenders had been occupied by Primordial Corruption, then a casual invasion such as this one would be effective at capturing land.

Unfortunately for them, it was not the heavens that were looking after Yi City, but Wei Yi.

“People of Yi City!” she exclaimed, using her connection to the other districts to ensure she was heard, “The Huang District is occupied by Primordial Blood, and they seek to attack us while they think us to be weak. If you wish to fight for your districts, come to the Fu District, Chen District, Yi District, Xin District or Bao District, and assist in the protection of our lands!”

Her intention was not to defend Yi City purely via the people, as the best warriors were near the sixth and seventh realms and not at all capable of overwhelming entities with the backing of Primordial Deities… well, not if they were left on their own. With all of her current authorities obtained from the slain Primordial Deities, she could potentially grant a certain benefit to her forces through those alone, though she was not exactly keen to attempt such a thing when she was already providing her physique abilities and some of her mental energy to them.

It would be unnecessarily risky just to create a balance that did not need to be made when she was present to fight in their place.

Rather, she needed the people of Yi City to guarantee that Primordial Blood’s forces wouldn’t push past the vanguard districts and damage any unprepared lands, which would need to be developing in the meantime to prepare for the future. Having all of the forces concentrated at a few select points would also mean a greater effectiveness there than when they are spread out all over the place and can’t coordinate sufficiently well to take down any unwanted intrusions from the Huang District.

She provided a few quick orders to the ancient beasts, some of the Patriarchs, and a few closer members of the Arbiters, then headed to the west, where a part of the Huang District’s forces were attempting to hasten to a district while the forces of Yi City were distracted. The combatants were composed of two primary groups, the most numerous being humanoid beings with clear similarities to the traits of the people of the Huang District – various malformations and irregularities that were the marks of mixing bloodlines that produced very unstable entities. Some of the best cases were merely odd to behold, but the others can resemble monsters.

The other group was that of actual monstrosities, stitched together from various parts, or clearly created from artificial bloodlines and various experiments that only the likes of the Blood-tinged Church would perform. Then again, their involvement was obvious.

With the kinds of things produced by that faction, and the people you could find living within the Huang District, connecting the Blood-tinged Church to the district that stood immediately next to the Blood Tribe, an outer nation focused purely on blood, was rather easy. Before, she had simply overlooked it as the energy of Primordial Blood had not been obvious in the territory, meaning that even if the Blood-tinged Church was active there all the time, Primordial Blood would not necessarily be there as well.

Most likely, it would be, since the Primordial Deities tended to appear in the areas where their influence was most significant, but that can be waived aside.

‘Alright, I should have thought of this earlier, and taken Primordial Blood down while it was weaker,’ she concluded, reaching out and willing her power to congregate in a massive sphere in front of her right hand, ‘Now, I will need a while to get used to my strength, and then I will be able to come out and take proper action against the Huang District. For now, I ought to be able to protect the Chen and Yi Districts easily enough.’

Her various forms of energy were made to stick very close together, to an extent that only something like Obliteration would typically permit, yet they were far more cohesive than usual, mirroring the situation within her body where they had no choice but to coexist.

The result was a mess of colours and auras, but the destructive power contained within only seemed to increase as time went on, leading to her rising intrigue in what the result might be. Provided that there were a lot of applications for simple energy, and she had already experimented with it and saw how Primordial Energy employed simpler forms of energy, and she suspected that there was more to be drawn out of it than she had previously assumed. Thus, while she was stuck in place for a while, practising with it would be ideal.

As soon as her foes got nearer, she used the mass she had conjured and forced it onwards, blasting it out in a vast beam that struck the ground quickly and tore through the land, obliterating most of the enemies and the terrain in one go. She had done nothing special, save for applying her current Dao and authorities, and yet the power of a simple attack was absolutely outstanding. However, there was more to be brought out of it.

She produced another mass, raising it into the air with her left clawed hand, and then gazed deep into the very concept of what she was producing. There was more to her creation, not from the structural point of view – a chaotic messy ball of energy was as straightforward as it got with any form of Planar Continental energy – but rather when considered from the perspective of the world’s nature and existence. In her hands were the five powers that formed one, and one that formed five. Within the ball were all the components of true planar energy – a sort of planar essence, as it could be called with a liberal interpretation of both words.

They could come together. By becoming true to the higher form of power, their strength would vastly surpass the individual components, and if she merged the principle of Obliteration… that would be rather difficult, actually. Obliteration contradicted a complete structure.

If her Obliteration was a weapon rather than a principle, she could invoke it on opponents without needing the essence of the energy to be broken as well, but that was not the approach she took. Similarly, had she chosen to simply invoke Law instead of binding itself and all the world with its chains, so it was more difficult to invoke Law without getting involved herself.

Hence, Obliteration would contradict planar essence, so she would need to break down the latter if she chose to use the former, greatly lowering its efficiency. This would still make it stronger than it was now, and stronger than uncontrolled oblivion essence, but it was not quite as simple simply wishing to have planar essence. It was out of reach for good reason, as it was significantly more complex in nature than her current oblivion essence and the other four types of energy, and could not be maintained within her body as she lacked the proper methods and physical structures to do so.

Her planar energy settled in her dantian, her killing will was held by her brain and mind, her veins anchored her bloodline power and her physique energy settled in her heart and musculature. All five coursed through her meridians – and now much of her body – but she would need to unify the anchor for all of them within one place. This would be rather challenging, even if the dantian was most suitable place and ruled out the need to search for alternatives.

‘Simply using the current mixture is enough for now, and should give me a good enough estimate of what the Huang District is capable of once it realises that its forces aren’t getting through easily,’ she thought, glancing past the mass of energy and finding another force approaching already.

When they covered a little more distance, she let the mass split apart into smaller projectiles, then imbued them all with the combination of Law and her current authorities.

Each one flew at a rapid pace, soaring past any attempts to defend against them and striking the entities brought out by the District of Blood. They killed all they touched in one strike, though the different bolts produced different results due to the authorities they were imbued with, shaping the incomplete planar essence into a manifestation of one of the authorities. Aside from confirming that it was still easy to manipulate, it gave her greater insights into the potential identities of the Primordial Deities.

She couldn’t be sure when they came to be, nor exactly why, but it was likely that they had come to be on the Planar Continents, and they were not entirely intrusive forces. They had a clear connection to the world, even if Heaven’s Will had not created them. Therefore, they were likely to be a product of another entity of Planar Continental origin.

‘What could make things as powerful as them and make no other impact, though? There is no known entity that has power that even vaguely resembles the power of Heaven’s Will, and certainly nothing reaching the power of those Old Ones, provided they are as strong or stronger than their azure lights.’

There were hints of things that went beyond the heavens, and possibly the Old Ones, depending on their true strength. However, most of the hints were so uncertain and vague that they might be entirely false. In fact, there was only really one thing she believed to point at something greater, and that was the image she had obtained in the Realm of Potential, of the woman surrounded by chains, which brought her onto her current path. Given the power that a single image had, there had to be something exceptional about either her or the image itself, though it was hard to tell from the single glimpse she had obtained.

Still, if she ever became qualified to deal with matters at such a level, she would be sure to explore and learn until she knew for certain everything there was to know. Knowledge was very much desirable, especially when the world had lost a great deal thanks to a cowardly will of the heavens and a group that was convinced by the silence and destroyed and stole everything for a foolish agenda.

For now, though, she satisfied herself with further tests of her powers, and got used to how they all interacted with one another, and what she could produce from them.

 It was too late to create entirely new technique and combat styles, but there was plenty of room for improving what she already had, and if good alterations came to mind, she could modify her plentiful arsenal to fit in something particularly effective. There was nobody to tell her no even if she was going to create something as absurdly powerful as her Black Sun technique, so the only restrictions were those she placed upon herself.

With this mentality, she proceeded to devote herself to those efforts.