Path of the Ascendant

“I did do my best to avoid damaging the area too much, but I got a little excited. If anything vital was destroyed, I can quickly rebuild it via my Elder Shaper’s Grasp,” Wei Yi said to the Ning Patriarch, who was somewhat displeased in the large hole that appeared at the back of the third basement floor, “First, though, I doubt that you can have any particular objections to me claiming this spatial stabilisation point.”

They were standing over the topic of discussion, the point being placed right in the middle and still glowing with a little ghostly green, although celestial crimson overwhelmed it on the surface.

At the moment, although the primary users of the spatial stabilisation point were slain, the connection it had to Testament remained. She could subjugate it easily enough with a little effort, as her energy would inevitably overwhelm the limited connection it had to the spatial realm regardless of the size and energy density within Testament, but it first important to speak with the Patriarch and check that he would permit her to have it. If he did not, he couldn’t really stop her, but it would make things slightly more difficult if she wanted to cooperate with the district as it currently was.

For the moment, she didn’t wish to stage another revolution and change the priorities of the district like with a few districts prior to this, so having an amicable relationship would be best. There was always room for alternative solutions after the simpler one was tested.

“To connect the Ning District to the Kong Prison Realm, and to let the people view that archive of yours, correct?”

“Technically, it’s the Ascendant’s Library, a mental technique I have cultivated, but that’s only the foundation, so calling it an archive is nicer to differentiate the two… Anyway, I’m in a better mood after killing those two, so I might even be willing to negotiate with you,” the Ascendant said, aware that one might easily misconstrue the expression on her face as some sadistic grin.

“Yes, that’s… clear. Very well, do as you wish. I shall see what you have to offer in your spatial realm.”

She tried to adjust her smile to a more positive one and placed her left hand above the spatial stabilisation point, releasing her vast power for almost a whole minute before her oblivion essence finally overwhelmed the influence of the spatial realm that it was linked to prior to this. The ghostly green burst, and her cosmic light overwhelmed the node on the ground, prompting the emergence of shadowed crimson and shining silver. A gateway formed before them, linking to Paragon.

Instead of directly leading him over to the other side, she pointed towards the stairs to her archive visible through one of the gateways and let him take a look on his own, since she had no issues with him studying any of the techniques she had put into the archive. All that would be problematic was contained within her own mind, away from the world until such a time that she took a step further and could discard her inventions and everything she had collected so far. There would be such a time, and it would make everyone trust her words far more when they too could attempt to form something akin to an Obliteration beam.

It shouldn’t require saying that few would be able to accomplish anything that would truly resemble it, if only because the requirement for matching it was having five types of energy of five very particular types and aspects come together smoothly and with a pure vision. Few had all of those things at once.

While the Patriarch departed, Wei Yi stayed and quickly shifted her position away from the Ancestral Hall, appearing in the air above it, looking towards the remaining two districts under the control of the Great Leeches. She saw the green walls around it, still, but it looked like the Leeches were actually attempting to rebuild the barrier once more.

This made little sense to her, since the barriers would be unable to hold her back even with her current strength, not to mention the realm she could achieve with just a little more effort using all of the energy stored within the Yi City Web. However, it did present a certain opportunity.

“Wei Yi, there you are… Are the Leeches still trying to repair their barrier? Isn’t that a bit pointless?” Li He asked, flying up with wings that were produced by a partial transformation.

“I suspect they intend to make use of that energy to solidify a barrier and create something that would have a chance of hurting me, since inventing a completely new arrangement and usage for the Yi City Web would almost certainly take far too long for them to manage it before I come over and kill all of them… Can your divine sense reach all the way over there?”

“Nope. I’m guessing yours can.”

“Mhm. It seems to me that, once it reaches a certain point of reconstruction, there will be a moment in which it is temporarily weakened, and the energy released upon shattering the barrier would be greatly increased. If that is the case, then it might be better to temporarily delay our attack on the Chen District,” the Ascendant said, “It seems like it would be eight days until that point, so we have eight days until that point. Alternatively, we can just leap in at any other time and break it at an earlier point, since it’s not that difficult to breach even now.”

“So, wanna fuck?”

“You lot are more like rabbits than dragons. Don’t be so eager, or else you won’t be able to get any human partners for yourselves. Remember, you lot have far more stamina than nearly everyone else.”

“With all of your attempts to strengthen people within the radius of your influence, that should not be the case soon enough. With enough effort, we could get all humans in the world to have a draconic bloodline and both parts, allowing the whole Western Continent to be a perfect land-”

“Don’t start on that. The people will do as they wish, and if that means that all of the women pair up with dragons, then that’s what will happen. Now, unless you have something useful to say beside trying to quietly take over the world, I’d appreciate it if you moved on to doing something useful. Even performing some dual cultivation with some people that’d benefit from it would be fine with me, in truth.”

“I heard that humans are fond of marriage and single partners. You won’t try to claim me as one?”

“No. Go already.”

The dragon shrugged, clearly seeing that whatever she was trying to do wasn’t working, and flew off to do whatever she had initially been planning to do, leaving the Ascendant alone, at least for a little while. With the number of people she had in her Arbiters, and that she had gotten involved with as a result of passing through as many districts as she had, it was almost guaranteed that she would run into someone else simply by floating in the air and looking on into the distance. The visual was certainly interesting enough for some she had never met to also try involving themselves with her.

This time, however, it was the most familiar of acquaintances.

“You have noticed it as well, I presume?” Yi Shi Ming asked, her figure appearing beside the Ascendant, “Something changed upon the demise of the two Greats, but I have not been able to determine the nature of the change.”

“Aside from the energy that they had been hoarding being freed, the other change… It’s probably that seal they keep going on about.”

“There’s only one thing that they could be sealing without our knowledge.”

“Yep, that seems to be the case. However, should I change my plans just because ending them might unleash a greater threat?” Wei Yi asked, “I had already mentioned the potential of greater dangers to the world, or, at least, to the districts that I had been able to reach with my words, and I have hardly held back the necessary techniques to deal with such threats. Not everyone needs to go beyond the common boundaries of humanity like I have just to survive, and I will have to be the one dealing with most of the threats anyway… Of course, if the phoenixes or the qilins finally came out of hiding, like the dragons have, then I could have some stronger combatants on my side, so one percent of the work could be delegated…”

“This situation, it shouldn’t surprise you to learn, is not entirely unfamiliar to me. My son did end up doing a lot of things himself, except that he had fewer skills, fewer ambitions, and less work as a result.”

“I know. I’ve seen him fight against Primordial Invader and lose numerous soldiers because he was far more powerful than them, forcing him to use their killing intent to trap the Primordial Deity in the Shard of Warfare, or whatever it had originally been called,” the Ascendant replied, raising Moon Splitter for a moment, “The problem is, he used pure planar energy. Others could have replicated his cultivation method, and even reach a similar level to his own with advancements I had come up with.”

“But the majority would not reach that realm, unless you have figured out a method for replicating the Truth of the Universe without the use of the otherworldly gift material. Personally, I have had little luck in that regard.”

“I’ve not had much time to experiment with it, but the power of Law should be able to yield some success. Before then, though, I can experiment with trying to convert the power of certain unusual artefacts into techniques as practise. It would be a good idea to comprehend exactly how to do so before even trying to invoke some kind of otherworldly power. Before then, though, I should break through a stage or two, since I have all of this energy right here.”

The mother of the Master of Yi City nodded, turning back towards the green barrier.

“Their mastery of protective barriers appears to be inspired to some extent by the same method that we use, the Four Cardinal Beasts array.”

“Meaning that they should have an archive that contains some semblance of the technique on its shelves? If so, then it would mean that all of the techniques they have stolen from the world do remain, and that would mean that we can release them once more and let the world recover to what it had once been, except with a great number of new additions.”

“However, they were clearly lacking in the understanding of how to resolve the obstruction we had formed via the defences around the Kong Prison Realm, which means that they shouldn’t have access to the whole thing.”

“Maybe… Perhaps they just weren’t ready to make good use of the knowledge they did have, and lacked practise in it. After all, the two of us are somewhat anomalous in the world, since my mental domain is capable of containing limitless quantities of knowledge while you are a spatial spirit that is anchored, in part, within my head, meaning that you share this ability. The Great Leeches, on the other hand, are idiots that probably wouldn’t cultivate a mental technique if it couldn’t resonate with their anchors, and even then it would be something to make them less intelligent rather than the opposite.”

“I know that you often don’t mean it, but still, I ought to remind you to take them seriously while they are still a potential threat to us.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know that. However, it really helps when dealing with my killing intent, since this is a non-destructive manner of venting it a little,” Wei Yi sighed, “For now, it is enough, but soon, it won’t be. As such, let’s get moving before someone else decides to pop up and have a chat with me while I’m floating about.”

The spatial spirit nodded and vanished from the spot, followed not long after by the Ascendant, who reappeared within the Ancestral Hall and grabbed onto the remaining sparks of energy that were attempting to suffuse into the environment. In addition to the arrangements intended to manipulate the Yi City Web, she had enough energy to potentially break through a stage before she had to attack the Chen District, which would make things far easier regardless of what the Great Leeches might attempt to throw at her at that time.

Claiming that spare energy for herself, she retreated to the Kong Prison Realm as well, and went about absorbing that energy for one half of her time, and examined a few of the more unusual artefacts in her possession in the other half. Fortunately for her, she did have quite a few.

The End, Signet Ring, for instance, could stop time, and that much was very worth investigating. If she managed to replicate it, then she would have an incredible power when it came to defensive measures, whether for herself or others that she currently couldn’t protect fully. She could stop the Leeches from teleporting away, like they did sometimes do, and if she comprehended some kind of method to undo events – rewinding time was impossible, but copying the phenomena that one would interpret as such an event was theoretically possible – then she could force an entity that did escape her grasp to return to her, even if she might need to effectively repeat their teleportation effect in reverse.

For now, she had yet to witness a single event like this that her divine sense could analyse, so she couldn’t experiment with it.

Another item of interest was the Abyssal Eye, which could summon wholly independent armies to fight on her command. This was exactly what she would benefit from in the upcoming conflicts, as she could ensure that there was no need to involve weaker fighters that would just get swallowed up by the fighting and slaughtered in massive numbers and without any benefit to her whatsoever. A weak force that simply acted as a numerous swarm would replace regular armies entirely.

The Spiralling Twig was also effective, if only because it was able to amplify the majority of attacks incredibly easily. Making that in large numbers and spreading it to everyone who used techniques and projectile attacks would allow her to multiply the power of her armies by three.

Additionally, the Blistering Tome was one that could allow even the weakest of individuals to perform powerful techniques against their foes without needing any mastery or knowledge of techniques and cultivation methods themselves. She did not have many combatants that lacked all knowledge of techniques and cultivations, and she also had the ability to bestow some of her own comprehension onto all those who were willing to learn, so it was lower on the list of priorities, but there was always the possibility of constructing variations of these tomes for a massive army copied from a replica Abyssal Eye that could then bypass their own lacking abilities and throw out all kinds of techniques incredibly easily.

Learning how to replicate the effects of such artefacts would allow her to comprehend how such things work in the Planar Continents, and then she would have a chance of understanding how other properties might be replicated in the form of techniques. From there, once she was able to replicate effects without having a physical blueprint for them, she could attempt to put together the necessary properties to create something akin to the primary abilities of the Truth of the Universe, which were the calculator fragment, and the forced upgrade aspect.

The former was self-explanatory, allowing her and Kong Shi Meng before her to develop certain techniques far more quickly than they otherwise could by substituting the necessary mental deliberation and experimentation with its own power.

The latter was more significant for the moment, as it could allow existing information and known improvements to a technique – also known as the stages of a technique, from the first stage onto the Dao Ascension stage – to be applied instantly with a vast quantity of energy serving to facilitate the changes to the body and mind necessary to upgrade the stage of a technique. This was what the calculator component also achieved, but the Ascendant knew that trying to put both of those functions into a single technique, array or artefact would be impossible before implementing them separately and comprehending the best manner in which to refine these components.

Of course, she knew that simply deciphering the manner in which the otherworldly gifts functioned wouldn’t be the only obstacle in the path of developing a replacement for actual gifts.

Anchor energy points were far more effective as a form of energy than simple wisps of planar energy, for they contained the very thing that dictated the overall energy density of the world. As such, substituting them with planar energy or even oblivion essence wouldn’t be feasible unless she was able to elevate oblivion essence to an even greater height that it would genuinely compare to anchor energy.

Given that anchor energy was necessary in large quantities to advance techniques even when all steps of improvement were known, requiring a minimum of one point in order to simply unify a series of methods together into what she had called the Ascendant’s Dao, a method confined to the Laws of the world would be less efficient and would thus require even more energy to be consumed, somehow. This would also require the development of some method of capturing sufficient quantities of energy at a sufficient speed, as typical methods of planar condensation would require a build-up of decades before being able to perform a single improvement in stage for anyone that wished to use them, even if all other necessities were prepared in advance.

This naturally posited a significant issue to her plans, since she did not currently have any artefacts that specialised in this, nor did she own an otherworldly gift with this ability. Certainly, most artefacts possessed some element of planar absorption and condensation, as this was necessary for them to be able to perform their function, but the most common method was taking in the energy of the cultivator. Unless a cultivator willingly released their anchors for the artefact to feed upon, they could never obtain an anchor energy point for the usage of the artefact in their possession.

Hence, her cultivation actually progressed more quickly than this work.

 

It took two days, and it was in the afternoon that she opened her eyes to see one halo appear in the air before her, begin to spin, sink into her body only for another halo to manifest. As always, her two consecutive breakthroughs brought two consecutive developments to her planar structures, and she got to experience the sheer power of two more oscillating halos atop her existing ones.

As she had suspected before this, the aura that had manifested around her dantian was indeed the size of the space that all of the halos would occupy once they appeared, as each one went further out than the one before and spun in conjunction with one another in the most fascinating of ways. Despite that, the halos still managed to affect around thirty Astral Scars at a time, arcs of red lightning manifesting whenever there wasn’t another halo in between the two points. She hadn’t seen some of the more advanced technological developments of the various Orbises, but some descriptions of their inventions did seem similar to the combination of halos.

The remaining aura around her dantian was sufficient for six or seven additional halos, and she expected there to be a total of ten due to the manner in which breakthroughs occurred. By reaching the effective ninth stage, or the fifth stage with four perfected stages, she would have naturally acquired nine halos. Then, as she broke through to the sixth stage, she would attain a halo during the regular breakthrough, and experience whatever transformation would come afterward during the next, as they are technically one and the same.

Nonetheless, now that she was not breaking through into a new realm, she had far less difficulty in controlling her oblivion essence, so she had been able to focus on some of her ideas from two days ago, and she had even come up with a few decent creations – potentially decent, in truth.

She hadn’t had the time to experiment with them, nor could she accurately estimate how people other than herself would fare when dealing with such creations. As risking the lives of innocent civilians was not something that she wished to do, she had to test them with the most powerful and physically fit individuals that she knew of. Prior to a few weeks ago, that would have been the population of the domains of physique cultivators in the Kong Prison Realm, but now she had far better candidates.

“So, Long Tao, since you’re most familiar with techniques – and well acquainted with Shun Liu Min, from what I’ve observed – you should be attempting this first.”

The Ascendant provided a manual made up from a mass of smoke with writing of silver upon its pages, and the dragon accepted it, opening it and immediately feeling the insights contained within rushing into her head. With this effect, it only took her a few minutes to get through the whole thing and understand the basics, so she was able to test it soon after.

“This… should this work? It doesn’t feel like it should…” Long Tao said.

“Yeah, it should work just fine. I’m here, so unless you are erased from existence the moment you test the technique, I will be able to keep you safe from whatever negative effects might be unleashed by this untested method.”

“Have you tested it?”

“I don’t want to shatter the surroundings of some unrelated districts again, so no.”

“Would it hurt you?”

“No. In fact, I don’t think one of my own techniques can really hurt me.”

Long Tao’s eyes momentarily widened before narrowing, “Can I at least see what you were attempting to make here? If I know, then I could control my energy to keep the chances of something terrible happening down, but otherwise… otherwise I will just be throwing myself straight into the deep end of the magma pool without knowing what swimming looks like.”

“You lot swim in magma pools?”

“Not too often, unless you’re a fire or red dragon, or make use of a fire-based technique… My scales are blue, I practise a water-type technique, and I’m much better at recovery-type techniques rather than outright defending myself, so jumping into something unsuitable would hurt…”

“Alright, back onto the topic of my technique. I would reveal it to you, but anything that isn’t explicitly written in the manual could affect your performance of the technique, and so it might well damage it without us having much of a chance to comprehend exactly what led to the failure. If one attempt is inconclusive at best, then I will show you, but otherwise, please make do of what you have,” Wei Yi said, pausing only for a moment before adding, “Incidentally, if you invent something different as a result of the technique’s lacking clarity, you might greatly contribute to its development.”

“Uh… Fine, I’ll do it… Could you, after this, pound me-”

“Just get on with it, and after that you can tell me whether dragons have a mating season or go into heat, because otherwise I see no explanation for your consistent horniness.”

“Is that a word?”

“It is now. Test the technique already.”

Long Tao nodded and shut her eyes. She put her hands together, held them up so that she could rest her chin upon them, and focused on circulating her energy through her body in the correct manner to activate the replica technique as well as she could.

Even with all of the comprehension provided to her, there was a limit to what someone could do with a brand-new technique that is not only unfamiliar to her, but also extremely unrefined due to effectively transposing the artefact channels into a proper technique that did not rely on a single artefact being present. This requires a great deal of changes to facilitate the proper effects of the mortal body upon energy, and the opposite, as artefacts were often made with materials that would improve their ability to perform a particular ability and resonate with the material to amplify certain effects. With the body, such things were difficult to achieve unless one made a technique for a specific bloodline or physique.

The Ascendant did not intend to do so until she came up with a superior Abyssal Eye that might produce entities that had a level equivalent to human cultivators. Then, she might deliberately create entities with specific physiques and meridian structures which would be conducive to specific methods which she could bestow onto them via something like a Blistering Tome.

Of course, the fact that the Blistering Tome would be the thing that she needed to alter was not the point here, although it was valid.

“I think… I think I have it. Now, watch me!”

Wei Yi had been doing so already, and simply increased her focus on everything about the dragon as all of the energy applied to the technique was released. The power emerged in the form of several masses of energy not unlike the light unleashed by the Great Leeches in the barrier around their districts. In a way, they resembled spirits far more than the energy she often compared to the appearances of ghosts. There were a total of seven, and they scattered around the open field they had chosen to perform this test in.

 Each one landed and sank into the ground, seeming to do nothing for a moment before the ground at their points of entry collapsed in, seeming to fall into a pool of water. This occurred at each point, and from each one a series of cracks expanded out and snaked about, a few meeting and forming smaller pits while the rest simply ended after an arbitrary distance.

However, there were no abyssal entities that emerged from within, nor any hint of there being sufficient space to use such cracks as tunnels for regular cultivators. In fact, there was only a few inches of space in the deepest of openings, and much of that was occupied by water.

“Eh… W-Was this it? I… What is this?”

“It’s meant to have produced some entities from within, and, technically, there are a bunch of bones in there. Presumably, had this succeeded, then we could have had those bones come together.”

“Oh… I hope I wasn’t at fault here?”

“It seems to me like the water element wasn’t of much harm to the technique, only altering its effect somewhat. Instead, the technique itself failed to produce semi-sentient minions because I hadn’t properly converted that portion, in no small part because that is easily my weakest point. Otherwise, I might have been able to use a variety of other techniques that require a separate consciousness far more easily,” the Ascendant said.

“Hm… Fuck me, please?”

“…”

Ultimately, the dragon did get her wish. She regretted riling up the Ascendant, however, and finally calmed down just a little bit.

 

"Hey, do you think the readers will expect some more lewd stuff even after all of the previous scenes?"

“Lily, what exactly do you expect me to say to that? I’ve already pointed out your insanity numerous times, and going along with it is silly too. Also, your voyeuristic tendencies are too much,” a figure with eyes that glistened with numerous star-like specks shook her head, “Do you really not get tired of doing things like this?”

“Like what?”

“You… no, not worth it. Never mind. I want a drink.”

“Do you want me to give you one?” the figure with a violet eye asked.

“Will it be anything other than a sexual fluid?”

“You know the answer to that. This time, you’re being repetitive,” she grinned, not even bothering to react to the displeased look the other figure gave her.