Path of the Ascendant

Due to the length of time taken for the breakthrough, it was now morning once again, meaning that the fight resumed upon the dawn of a new day, in the same manner that it itself was a new dawn.

Although both sides were expecting her victory, especially after she brought in dragons and began jumping around the districts under her control and cultivating with ten times the energy that most thought was even available, none were truly prepared for it. They saw the open gap in the green barrier – for it remained in part around the Chen and Yi Districts, with the latter having a significantly stronger remnant than the district of wealth – and simply stood there, mouths agape and minds utterly blown, attempting to understand the sight before them.

The moment after that, however, the frozen world reverted to a natural state of chaos. All forces of the Ascendant charged in, with many choosing to travel towards the open gap in the metal walls to invade far more easily. Some did stand by at the other parts of the district, making sure that some of the defenders would be occupied by their efforts even if they did not succeed in getting in.

On the other hand, the Great Leeches and the forces under them splintered into two. There was one half that promptly leapt out of the Ning District as quickly as possible and surrendered themselves to the invaders, with most later being confirmed to be simple guards, residents and other combatants that were sufficiently capable to stand near the walls and defend them, but not at all wishing to participate in a battle like this.

Others were further away from the walls, but there was enough of a distraction in the form of the Ascendant’s breach for them to escape the attention of the Greats and get out later, leaving only the second group.

The group that was loyal to the Leeches, or believed their side to be far more likely to succeed, mostly didn’t bother trying to stop such fleeing people. Most of them weren’t complete psychopaths that had no regard for fellow human lives, especially not of those that they had lived with and known for some time, and the few that would slaughter anyone on a whim had no reason to waste their time attacking fleeing civilians and the like. This battle would only last for a day or two, and in that time the fleeing populace could only inconvenience the side of the Arbiters, not assist them.

In truth, there was also the third group, the one that did not fight at all, whether due to being unwilling or incapable. Most had a low cultivation, no real combat ability, or something else of the sort, and so the Greats must not have pushed them to fight and allowed them to hide away within their homes. This was helpful to the Ascendant and her Arbiters, as it would reduce the chances of collateral damage and casualties.

Wei Yi allowed her forces to take care of the weakest forces first, as her power had elevated even further and even the simplest of techniques could destroy the body of a man if she just slightly missed her target or miscalculated her effort. The presence of the halo certainly didn’t assist that.

Instead, she took the time to get acquainted with her new state, simply supplementing her forces with a few dozen banners to ensure their survival. Having already observed the changes brought about by and to her physique energy and bloodline power, all that remained to consider was her oblivion essence, her dantian, the core that formed within and the halo that formed around it.

Her dantian remained crystalline at the moment, but her current experience with just about everything led her to conclude that there were likely to be one or two additional forms that her dantian bones could take. One might well resemble the Endless Monolith, another might have some celestial presence due to the prevalence of cosmic themes within a number of physiques and abilities, as well as the fact that the combination of all elemental energy appeared to become cosmic energy for whatever reason.

The halo that had briefly formed within reality did not remain there for long, returning to her body and continuing to spin just as it had from the start. This confirmed that she was going to experience noteworthy differences in her path from the start of her cultivation, rather than from the sixth stage onwards. As the aura that had contributed to the formation of the first halo remained, she could tell that the other halos were also going to have a different arrangement, and that they might very well spin as well. If so, then they might very well be connected to one another, and thus the final ten halos would form an extremely complex series of rotating rings.

She had no clue whether that was a positive thing on its own, but the final outcome is ought to be beneficial to the ultimate state of her cultivation.

Unlike regular halos, this one did not have an attachment to ten of her Astral Scars, although she could see momentary sparks bursting out of the centre of Scars and striking the nearest point on the spinning halo when the ring of the halo passed over the Scar. Coincidentally, there were usually ten sparks, all mixtures of violet and crimson, occurring at a time, although that seemed more like a coincidence due to the arrangement of the Astral Scars.

As she had a single halo at this moment, she experienced a power multiplier of five that applied to everything she had, just like how the anchor and Endless Monolith was able to stabilise and enhance bloodline power, physique energy and killing will, albeit more indirectly than the halos.

This much was standard, and part of the power that the seventh realm had and that the other realms wished they could obtain, and with every additional halo, she would attain another identical multiplier that worked additively with the previous halo. Even if they all began to orbit one another instead of sitting beside one another as they would for most, that shouldn’t change to a multiplicative increase, and if it did, she would be extremely concerned for herself and for everyone around her, as that would be absolutely nonsensical and impossible. It would simply bring out far, far more questions regarding the nature of the world, and she had enough to deal with.

The final increase would be a total of fifty, and if the changes to her anchor had taught her anything, it would be that the transformation of her halos by the sixth stage would double their properties. If so, the final multiplier would be one hundred, and that… well, it would be just as extreme of a change, but it would certainly bring her power up to a realm that could eventually be transformed to infinity.

Even without that, the boost to the range of her spiritual perception- no, it had to be called divine sense now, for she had infused the power of her soul into it not just for a moment, as she had initially wished, but permanently instead. Thus, where a normal cultivator might not care too much about the distinction of divine sense and spiritual perception, it was an extreme difference for her that couldn’t be ignored no matter what else she thought to do.

It was now able to perceive significantly more than her spiritual perception ever could, and the most noteworthy of those was an absolutely enormous change that she didn’t even believe to be possible.

An excellent demonstration of this was the sudden discovery of a number of faint traces of something within her body where there had been nothing prior to this. For instance, one such thing was located within her dantian, at the exact position of the numerous shards that made up the character portion of the Truth of the Universe.

‘Now, I can’t detect them precisely, nor can I identify anything about these things just yet, but I am able to sense the vague presence of the otherworldly gifts… Fuck, now I have to figure out exactly what led to that change, and how that lines up with my understanding of the nature of spiritual perception as a whole,’ Wei Yi sighed to herself, her problems likely being those that many wished they could have instead of the very prospect of breaking through being out of their reach, ‘Let’s see, so spiritual perception and the Dao of the world are obtained from a kind of archive that the heavens themselves either have, or effectively provide to the world. Thus, all that they know, we can know, and all that they do not, we would have to study on our own.

‘In that regard, the upgrade from spiritual perception to divine sense is not only in the overall stability of the mental energy, but possibly also in the increase of information that can be obtained. However, it has already been determined that the heavens do not understand azure lights or otherworldly gifts as a whole, for only those who know exactly what to look for – or more precisely, to take note of absences of something – can detect the presence of otherworldly gifts regardless of realm.

‘From that, I can conclude that it is not some increase in permissions that has allowed me to perceive otherworldly gifts. I don’t know whether the heavens truly do or do not know anything, but nothing so far indicates that they understand the gifts or the azure lights, which is enough for me to know that they are not the right entity to preside over the world. Aside from that, it does narrow down the source of this new development, and I suspect that it in part originates from the combination of my Dao of the Heavens, and the influence the otherworldly gifts have had upon me up to this point.

‘The form of oblivion essence I have, even if oblivion essence itself can be attained by others, is very unlikely to exist without the stabilising property of the Truth of the Universe. Obliteration energy, a significant element of my path, is also quite similar to some concepts that managed to elevate the power of my soul, which are presumably otherworldly in origin.’

She had plenty of other encounters of an otherworldly nature, and had dealt with quite a few things that were typically beyond someone at her realm, but more importantly than that, the energy of azure lights and the physical elements of otherworldly gifts had to exist. That much may sound obvious and pointless as a statement, but if they exist, then they affect the world, which can be verified easily by the fact that otherworldly gifts with a solid form can be visually perceived by others, and some will have energy that is also visible to others, although many will conceal some or all parts of their effects upon the world via their otherworldly natures.

Presumably, when the power of divine sense is elevated to its Absolute peak, like with the power of her soul, an unusual halo affected by Astral Scars in place of searing marks, an Endless Monolith, Subterranean Shell, the seventh realm in killing will cultivation, and the further boost of her bloodline, it would be able to pick up on such subtle signs, for they were the lone elements that the heavens had to recognise.

That allowed her mental energy to pick up on the faint waves released by the otherworldly gifts, and that allowed her to understand their origin and nature. Eventually, she might be able to use those waves to perceive an otherworldly gift in its entirety, simply by extrapolation.

She brought her attention away from that and onto the remnants of the Yi City Web barrier, which had adjusted itself to wrap around only the Chen and Yi District, with the primary quantity of energy being around the Yi District. The typical cultivator would still struggle to break into the lands of the Yi District – and most importantly, the point that was likely the physical position of Testament, which remained within a short distance to the Yi District – but fortunately, she did not intend to breach that district first, nor did she wish to run straight at the Chen District either.

Instead, she wanted to take on the districts one by one, claiming the spatial stabilisation points for herself, and cutting off any further supply of energy to the main district of the Leeches. Also, there were likely to be some Great Leeches stationed in the Ning and Chen Districts, so she would greatly benefit from taking them on and reducing their power before confronting them on their home grounds.

As someone who also owned a spatial realm, she knew all too well that when one was within a domain that they owned and could control, they would have an immense advantage in comparison to the outside force, which would need to comprehend the exact nature of the spatial realm they found themselves in, as well as its Laws, restrictions, principles and geography. Even if Testament was a simple field and the last point could be disregarded, a simple Law like the conversion of planar energy to something else could completely devastate an invading force and give them far more to work with, which was something she naturally didn’t want to do.

Furthermore, there was no immediate rush to kill all of the Great Leeches. Their plans were always in the long term, and the primary element that forced her haste was that they were too dangerous to be left on their own, without anyone to pressure them. As such, now that pressure was being actively applied, there was much less need to take out everything at once. Going through, district by district, Great Leech by Leech, would be sufficient.

‘On that note, my Arbiters appear to have handled the outermost forces, so it is time for me to come in,’ the Ascendant thought, subduing her vast power so that an accidental step didn’t shatter the rest of the metal walls around the Ning District and taking a step inside.

A few arrows and planar constructs immediately fell upon her, but she didn’t even need to invoke her energy in order to handle them. Her divine sense was sufficient to stop the advancement of most projectiles, and a quick increase in the concentration of her divine sense was enough to crush anything that she couldn’t stop.

Then, she lifted the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow and clicked her fingers, although she mostly simulated the sound and performed the motion for effect. Claws alone made it difficult enough to make a clicking sound, and when her whole Arm could only move in odd jumps that didn’t quite work as they should, it was even more difficult. It did, however, make for an absolutely wonderful and inherently satisfying motion to perform for anything that had a great effect, and so she tended to perform it every time she was given the opportunity to do so.

This time, it was even more appropriate as she scattered the tips of her claws and used them to form a series of red phantoms around her to retaliate against those that had attacked her.

Although only that much of her hand had been expended, it produced nearly a hundred phantoms of the same grade that had previously managed to resolve to deal with an attack from the Yi City Web’s barrier on their own. With a hundred of them, all targeting different individuals that were nowhere near the seventh realm or thirty anchors, there was essentially no chance for them to survive any strike intended to be lethal.

With those that tried to strike at her gone, she simply moved onward and allowed the remaining energy to float around her and form into additional phantoms when there was a need for it. One by one, resistance was eliminated or chased off, and the Ascendant eventually came up to the Ning Ancestral Hall, where Long Hua, Great Dark and a few other stood.

They were somewhat preoccupied by dealing with those that were attempting to ward them away from the entrance of the Ancestral Hall, but that was resolved with a quick wave of Wei Yi’s finger. To minimize damage to the district itself, she did not use the same phantoms but instead applied Edge Replication to cut right through the opposition, letting them drop to the ground as she turned towards Great Dark.

“Having problems?”

“The Greats have occupied the Ancestral Hall, and they appear intent on staying in there… It is likely that the spatial stabilisation point is inside… and so they would like to reconstruct some part of the barrier.”

“That, or do any number of things with the plentiful energy located within the Yi City Web. Give me a moment,” she said, turning to the district and all of the people that were currently within and ready to fight. For someone who had fought against the Great Leeches from the moment that she had her first unfortunate interaction with them, it was odd seeing that there were quite as many people on their side, so she decided that it would be best to ask these people a simple question that anyone fighting within a war, or even within a battle that had many days leading up to it, could answer.

She amplified her voice using her physique ability alone, for using her technique in conjunction with it might lead to her killing half of her intended audience by accident.

“What exactly are you fighting for?” the Ascendant asked her main question, then moved onto some more for good measure, “Do you think the Great Leeches are the ones that will provide it to you? Do you believe that they will preserve whatever it is that you value? Are you under the impression that I will be the one to take these things from you, or prevent you from ever having them?”

Naturally, this wasn’t some kind of calm, organised scenario in which any of those that she was speaking to would answer. With thousands of people being her intended audience, it was also highly unlikely for all of them to reply with a single answer, since that would require all of them to be identical in mind and body, and this was not something that would be found within humanity, nor within any other living thing. Only a pure element, whether one known to otherworldly demons or the five elements of the world, could have identical particles, although even that wasn’t an entirely accurate statement.

To return onto more relevant matters, she knew that there would be a few particular focuses for the people of the district, so it was best to begin with those instead of more obscure factors that only one or two would ever care for.

“Most of you ought to care about the wellbeing of the district, but I think that it is your own state that all of you care for the most. Know this, then – this war is not against you. It is only against the Great Leeches, those vile things that would drain the world of all planar energy to make themselves kings amidst you, and if that is what you desire… I am sure you know of a method to put yourself beneath another. Do not force all others to suffer alongside you.”

There wasn’t much of a reaction, so she didn’t give people time to sit around and ponder.

“The majority of you naturally desire strength, and with the growth of planar energy and development of techniques that all within the domain of the Arbiters get to view at no cost to themselves, strength is what the world as a whole will gain. Most ought to prefer growth, development, improvement in all fields relevant to them, and that is something that I wish for while the Great Leeches constantly suppress it, just like they suppress all things,” she stated, “I wish to let the world develop, while they do the very opposite-”

“Then what is with your attack on us all?” a voice finally decided to make itself known to Wei Yi, putting the slightest of smiles upon her face.

“I don’t think that you could have missed those that fled, and those that did no harm to me. They are alive, and they are well, and those that are out of the district are already under the effect of a number of recovery physique abilities to ensure their health. Personally, I have also made a great deal of effort not to strike at even a single soul that had not attacked first. Where do you see us being the attackers?”

Of course, people did not like being in the wrong, nor any indication of such a thing, so before anyone could get riled up at all of her words, which were accurate but very deliberate in the way they painted things, she made sure to switch her tone to one that was more in their favour.

“Again, you are not my targets, and if any of the Arbiters attack those that do not fight, they will be punished. Just stand back, let us take care of the Leeches of this world, and then the whole district will see the benefits of a spatial gateway linking to all the other districts, my numerous physique abilities being applied to this place at all times, the techniques of numerous times and districts accessible via a free archive for all, and even comprehendible by anyone due to the mental energy the manuals are made from. Just stand back, let us do what must be done, and if any unnecessary damage is done, then it shall be repaired or accounted for, that much you can be certain of after the battle at the Ping District.”

Knowledge of battles in different districts, effectively separated by the Luo District, was not the most widespread, but the near destruction of a good portion of a district and a complete upset of its former ruling structure was hard to ignore or miss. As such, most of those with some combat capacity – the majority of those that the Ascendant was addressing right now – did know of the event.

They were aware of how the district had been greatly damaged during the battle between the Ascendant and the Ping Patriarch, and the fact that it had been the Ping Patriarch that had begun with the most dangerous of methods was also well known. Although the majority of the destruction was indeed caused by Wei Yi’s black sun, it was also obvious from the ridiculous speed of the rebuilding effort that she did care about correcting the damage she dealt.

What the cause of this desire was, they couldn’t know for certain, as trusting her word would not be worthwhile if they already believed her to be unreliable, but it was there, and they could rely on that.

Hence, there was a slow movement that spread across the district. A number of men and women across the Ning District lowered their weapons and calmed their circulation of planar energy, although most didn’t outright throw themselves into the arms of the Arbiters and surrender themselves, but instead tried to get out of the way of anyone else that still wished to fight.

The number of those that were still keen for battle were fortunately low, although the Ascendant could see that there were more than enough willing combatants within the Ning Ancestral Hall. All of them were Great Leech replicas or actual Great Leeches, so their folly was to be expected, and since she did intend to kill every one of them, she did not even bother to attempt convincing any single one of them. Perhaps there would be one or two amongst them that would be convinced by something, but to completely change their minds after a million years of adhering to a specific set of ideas and ideology would be impossible.

It would also call into question her previous relentless killing, with that being the least of her potential concerns, so she would rather end the Greats cleanly, remove all of their worst ideas from their methods, and remove their worst methods from active use, and then release the rest in the same manner that she had plenty of other techniques. At worst, she would kill a few more people than necessary, but with the deaths she had already caused, she wasn’t too concerned about that.

“I have said everything I wished to say. If you continue to fight, you will die, and that much I can guarantee. At this moment, I am in the seventh realm, the same as your Patriarch, with all perfected realms, and the cultivation paths of physique, killing intent, spiritual will and bloodline power. When I had been far weaker, I was able to destroy a great deal of the Ping District through resonance with the array the Ping Patriarch had used in the attempt to repel me. Now, I could do the same without the need for such a thing, but I would rather not do it. Do not force me to.”

Threats of force were always an effective method against those who understood reason, but only in respect to their own survival. Indeed, she found great success here as well, for the rest of the combatants dropped their weapons and surrendered, prompting their fellows that had stepped back to do the same.

When there were none that would fight, ensuring that they would get the best treatment in surrender seemed to be the next best choice, but Wei Yi didn’t care much for that.

“So, with my moment given, we can proceed. You lot are on protection duty, I will handle the Great Leeches and whatever methods they’ll use, as, at the moment, they appear to be sitting around and waiting for my arrival, while the Ning Patriarch stands in front of them and waits for me also.”

She had been observing things down there since the moment that she got her divine sense under control after the breakthrough, and although she caught no conversation, she suspected that the Ning Patriarch was currently on the side of the Great Leeches but not willing to simply throw his life away for their cause. Most likely, he would like to have a similar interaction with her as the Chu Patriarch had two weeks ago, and might step away if things were to his satisfaction. Ultimately, however, even if he did decide to fight alongside the pair of Great Leeches in the first generation that stood further in the Ancestral Hall, he would be completely useless and would simply throw his own life away for no real benefit to himself or his district.

Wei Yi’s cultivation was now at the seventh realm, with a series of perfected realms for every single previous realm effectively being quadrupled in terms of basic power. This was amplified by the halo, Endless Monolith, Subterranean Shell, bloodline power and its seventh realm, as well as numerous other powers and methods that she had attained. Against a regular seventh realm cultivator, like what the Ning Patriarch appeared to be, she might as well be the heavens themselves.

Since she had previously been able to beat the first generation member of the Great Ning family, she suspected that she wouldn’t have very much trouble dealing with them, either, and that trouble would be reduced even further with every halo that she acquired.

“A dragon on protection duty…” Long Hua muttered to herself, noticed by most near her.

“You have precise enough control over your energy, and your overall power is sufficiently high to ward off my stray power but not too great as to inflict the same amount of damage that I could. At the moment, my mental energy is in relative balance to all of my other cultivation paths, so I am sufficiently in control of myself, but when I come across the Leeches in person, I may get a little excessive with my attacks,” the Ascendant explained, demonstrating said restraint by not immediately shattering the Ancestral Hall and barging into the lower levels, “Now, go on and get inside.”