Path of the Ascendant

She fought with Primordial Inferno primarily on the thirteenth, and soon it was the fourteenth. The dragons and qilins split up, the former heading to the Shi District while the latter proceeded onto the lands between the Ning and Wei Districts, attempting to discover anything relating to Primordial Cosmos. Judging from the words of the Ning Patriarch, she expected it to be relatively easy and quick for them to track it down.

It turned out not to be the case. Sure, there were sightings every other minute – that being an exaggeration, of course – but whenever they or Wei Yi tried to follow the entity, it was nowhere to be found.

In fact, even after a whole day’s attempts to track down anything even vaguely related to the Primordial Deity of the cosmos, the only outcome was a wasted day and nothing at all to show for it.

The Ascendant didn’t like that very much, but she could not find a single person to complain to, so she simply accepted the situation. Frankly, it would be rather pointless to complain, for the only entity that could contribute here would be the heavens, and she did not have the opportunity to chat with them so far. Provided that her earlier conclusion about Primordial Inferno was accurate, then it might be that even the will of the heavens cannot assist her in this matter, as they might well be blinded to the deeds of the Primordial Deities to some extent.

In that case, she would have to rely entirely upon herself, but fortunately she didn’t need to actively handle Primordial Cosmos yet. There had been no reports regarding any actual damage inflicted by this oddly transient Primordial Deity, and so it meant that she could place her focus in its entirety upon the Shi District.

Half-way through that day of searching, as well as practising her new-found control over blazing heat and flames in combination with her other abilities, she was greeted by the sudden appearance of several powerful entities in the area where the passage to Long Mingyun and her dragons was located.

It took less than a moment for her to bring her divine sense over and confirm that they were, just as one might expect, dragons, and that each one was also in the seventh realm, nearing the peak or resting right upon it. Although she technically had the time to meet with them, given that a few minutes of chatter wouldn’t interfere with her training, which could be conducted within the Kong Prison Realm to greater effect than it would be within the Planar Continents themselves, she still chose to let Li He take care of it instead.

Mostly, she had already had enough of the dragons and their incessant lust.

‘Considering that I am the one with the Dao of Lust, perhaps I shouldn’t be the one complaining, but tales of dragons and qilins going around and filling the world with their offspring are more than common. I mean, the Yi family bloodline originated from a qilin, so they clearly had enough presence all the way down here even though they ended up sitting in the north, burning in the sands of their isle or whatever it was that they got up to,’ the Ascendant had thought, paying a little attention to their chatter.

Ultimately, they didn’t say that much of use, so once she confirmed that they were heading in the right direction, Wei Yi returned her full attention to herself, and spent her time that way.

 

Fifteenth of the tenth month. Primordial Cosmos had appeared a few dozen more times in rumours, but never was the Ascendant able to perceive its presence. It seemed to make no sense at all, for she previously didn’t have any difficulty in detecting any of the other Primordial Deities – like the currently rampaging Primordial Ocean, for instance – but she began to accept that this might well be the unique property of Primordial Cosmos in particular. The true reason would be discovered only once she reached a sufficiently high realm to gain a superior grasp over energy in comparison to the Primordial Deities.

Alternatively, if Primordial Cosmos decided not to hide itself from her for whatever reason, that would also provide plenty of explanations, but that was unlikely. Whatever reason it had not to appear right now, it shouldn’t change any time soon.

As soon as the sun rose and she had nothing else to do before this, she headed to the Shi District by going straight through the nearest gateway and then rushed over to the borders with rapid uses of Omit Movement. The reckless movement threw her near a few planar beasts, which were slowly rising in power as well, leading to her encountering a few entities within the sixth and even seventh realm.

Such foes might have been dangerous to the ordinary Patriarchs or Matriarchs of Yi City, but Wei Yi was not only a dual Matriarch of the Wu and Wei Districts, but she had her oblivion essence and everything else she had built up to this point. Against her, such beasts fell with an attack or two, and it was almost disappointing to see them fall so quickly before her. If it wasn’t for the fact that even fighting against them was an unnecessary waste of time, she might have held back and tried against while sticking to their level.

With the minimal delays, she arrived at her destination within a few minutes of setting off, and found… well, what one might expect to find in a district ravaged by Primordial Ocean.

The culprit itself was very obvious in the distance, rising above the ocean waters. Constant waves ravaged the shores and tore up the blue expanse, whirling around a colossal figure that looked far too calm for the madness that it was inflicting upon its surroundings.

It was shaped like a woman, with an average figure and face that, on a human being, wouldn’t be unattractive even at the worst of times. Of course, the traits of Primordial Deities manifested upon this figure as well, and so any hint of attractiveness was completely marred by the unnatural flood of hair and, more importantly, the foaming mouth that revealed an endless sea of sharp waves within it. Somehow, every one of the Primordial Deities had such jagged teeth – or whatever the waves were meant to be in the case of Primordial Ocean – and all of them managed to make complete mockeries of the humanoid features they did retain.

They would have looked far better if they didn’t even attempt to resemble humanity.

Going back on topic, Primordial Ocean was currently residing in the water between the two halves of the Shi District, and its minions, things made of water or infused with copious amounts of it, were attacking the eastern portion of the land, while the western half was already devoured by it some time ago.

That’s not to say that the western portion, technically also located on the Western Continent but past a great divide of water that nearly split a segment of land from the rest, was completely unrecognisable, but if anyone free of Primordial Ocean’s influence still lived there, they would not be found easily. Most things there were weathered by water, drowned in it, torn and shredded into something barely resembling the original structures and land.

The east still had a chance, for while many buildings were damaged and most of the smaller structures, roads, monuments and whatever else were obliterated during the conflict, one could easily reconstruct the most severe damage within a week at most. Bigger homes, residences, businesses and even most of the walls were still intact, meaning that one could move in right now and only have to handle the water monstrosities formed by Primordial Ocean, with the rest of their day being reasonable enough. Of course, the minions poured in as constantly as water poured through a river, so there wouldn’t be much of the day not occupied by them, but it was still better than nothing.

‘For as long as Primordial Ocean remains over there, I should be able to fight with its minions easily enough, but that isn’t the core of the problem. Rather, I need to either get it sealed or kill it outright, if such a thing is currently possible,’ the Ascendant thought, looking on as one of the previously pristine buildings collapsed due to a casual attack from one of the minions of Primordial Ocean, ‘To get it sealed, I would need to remove it from the eastern portion of the Shi District, as to not leave it for Primordial Ocean to destroy, but that…’

For those that the otherworldly demons would describe as normal, those without a cultivation or abnormal powers of any kind, redirecting a stream was a feasible feat if they knew what they were doing. It didn’t require much brute force, after all. However, moving an ocean was impossible.

In this situation, if the overall power of her and Primordial Ocean was brought down to more easily understood levels, then she would be the ordinary person, and the Primordial Deity would be the ocean. Defeating it without any care for her surroundings might be on the level of getting rid of a sea, something smaller but still extremely difficult, yet somehow more feasible when compared to the other option simply due to an even more difficult option being available.

Human psychology worked in interesting ways, sometimes, and the Ascendant didn’t mind it right now.

‘Alright, I guess I should jump in, clear up the area, then try to push back Primordial Ocean somewhere else,’ Wei Yi concluded after a moment, vanishing from her position moments before a loose blast of water from the battlefield shattered the small hill that she had chosen to stand upon, ‘The first thing to do would be to contact the… wait. What is this?’

She appeared in the air above the walls of the Shi District and instantly attacked the nearest foes with some precision railgun bolts, minimizing their explosive potential as to limit needless damage, but her mind was distracted by a strange sensation that she couldn’t quite identify.

It was familiar, oddly so, and it took her a good length of time to recall what it was, for there was no exact match within her memories. Otherwise, she would have been able to match the memory and current reality within an instant of the outside world, and she would not have had to deliberate on the matter for almost fifteen seconds before the flipping pages of the Ascendant’s Library ended up delivering the answer.

The answer was not one she liked.

While she couldn’t confirm that the current aura and the previous record of something like it in her mind originated from the same place, nor that they truly had much of a relation, the strange draining of an unseen force by an unseen, yet definite thing. It was all around the entities of Primordial Ocean, and oddly enough, it surrounded many of the Shi family’s people too.

As soon as she recognised it, she had to investigate, and thus she switched her plans quite a bit. She put down a few totems to channel her power, conjured a series of phantoms through them, and then quickly applied Omit Movement a few dozen times to flood the Shi District with phantoms of herself, before using every one of the totems and their phantoms to produce a railgun bolt and a series of rails for the bolt to be fired from. When they were ready and aimed at something reasonable, she moved again and left them to be released upon her foes.

Instead of managing that, she let the synchronised explosions sound in the distance and appeared before the person with the most authority that she was able to find right now.

It was a woman who was surrounded by a few competent combatants, and numerous less-competent ones. They listened to her instructions, as few as she provided during the Ascendant’s observation of her and her group, and her armour was of higher quality and with more ornamentation than that of her peers.

Since she didn’t have the time to bother with normal conversational procedures, she appeared right in front of this woman and placed her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow upon her shoulder, preventing her from jumping back in fright.

“AH! You- who-”

“Tell me, do you know anything about a technique by the name of the Magnanimous Leech?”

From the rather intense expression of fear on her face, the Ascendant had almost been expecting her to wet herself if given another second, but that suddenly receded when she heard the title.

“W-What are you talking about?”

“Shi Jing! Get away from Shi Jing, you-”

“Shi Mu Tao, please, wait a moment,” the woman replied, their exchange helpfully informing Wei Yi about both of their names and confirming that her initial assessment of the Shi District’s forces were overly optimistic, “You… are you that Ascendant I’ve heard of?”

“That Ascendant you’ve heard of… I’m starting to regret letting you talk normally, instead of grabbing your neck and demanding answers and nothing else,” Wei Yi muttered, her grip tightening.

“S-Sorry, I had been a little distracted by the forces of Primordial Ocean, I promise-”

“Answer. My. Fucking. Question.”

“I might know!”

The Ascendant raised an eyebrow and couldn’t decide whether to tighter her grip, move it to the woman’s throat, or to let her go and pick someone more competent to question. Most of the soldiers surrounding her and this Shi Jing appeared to be even worse regardless of how she viewed them, so she would need to look for a different group.

She took another look at the woman she was gripping, and realised that she had an odd beauty that effectively answered the question for her. Shi Jing’s skin was oddly pure and soft, her eyes were unusually bright and striking, and the rest of her body was similar.

A large but not excessive pair of breasts and buttocks, fit physique, smooth hair, and even a pleasant smell despite participating in combat for quite some time without an opportunity to wash herself. Some people were born with some of these features naturally, but rarely did such things unite in one person without abnormal circumstances or dedicated cultivation of one’s body or appearance. The Ascendant was an example of such abnormal circumstances, and so far as she was able to determine, this woman and her peers also had to be.

Indeed, Shi Mu Tao also had a strangely fit body and what she presumed to be a good appearance, though she couldn’t judge it effectively due to him being a man.

“Are you people using it?”

“We… I don’t know of a Magnanimous Leech, but- BUT!” the woman exclaimed when Wei Yi moved her other hand just a little, “The Shi District has tales of a Gluttonous Leech.”

“So, are you using it right now?”

“No, I don’t even know if it is a technique! its ancient history, and I’m only thirty-three!”

“Is that stopping you from learning ancient history? Do you need to be over a certain age to do that kind of study?” the Ascendant asked, shaking her head and returning back to the proper topic when she realised she got carried away, “Who knows more, or where would information about this be found? Ideally, as quick as possible.”

“Um… The west side of the Shi District.”

“Ah. That’s a problem, but if Primordial Ocean hasn’t fucked that place entirely, then it shouldn’t be a problem to recover it at a later time. If there’s no good place to find out about it, is there a knowledgeable person that might still live?”

“I… I’m not sure who’s still alive…”

The Ascendant decided to let go of this woman’s shoulder, and step back to ponder the situation. With her divine sense, she was able to inspect most things within the eastern portion of the district, and a lot of the western portion, but neither one contained definite answers nor any hint of the term Gluttonous Leech. She had already gone to the person holding the most authority out of those alive and well, with there being no hint of a Patriarch or guardians anywhere nearby, so it appeared like she wouldn’t be able to rush to an answer while ignoring the district’s state.

Given that she would need to attack the Primordial Deity anyway, it was rather helpful that she wasn’t completely distracted by something else, but it was still incredibly irritating right now.

“Shi Jing, right?”

“Y-Yes?”

“Who are you, exactly?”

“I’m not someone special, but my father is… was a guardian of the Shi District,” she replied, pausing despite her best efforts to speak as quickly as possible.

“That’s why these people are listening to you?”

“That’s right.”

“What about the Patriarch? Is he alive, or was he slain or changed by Primordial Ocean?”

“… Shi Mu Tao?”

“There has been no trace of him since the second day of Primordial Ocean’s attack. We are presuming Shi Song Lao has been slain by Primordial Ocean,” the male guard from before said.

“In that case, you might as well be the next Matriarch. If you listen to me and don’t slow me down like you have already done, then the eastern half of the district will certainly be saved. I can’t promise anything when it comes to the western part, though,” Wei Yi said, giving them no time to reply or consider her words before proceeding, “Also, I’m taking your spatial stabilisation point, and you will be joining the new Yi City whether you like it or not.”

“T-Then, could you answer my question?”

“I am the Ascendant, though perhaps you know of someone else that goes by that title. If so, then we have no relation at all.”

“Oh, alright…”

Since that conversation was over, the Ascendant moved on to the matter of the conflict, and decided that the best thing to do would be to create a battle plan and let the people that surrounded this Shi Jing go off and join her own forces and participate more effectively than just sitting around and looking after this one woman.

“What are you lot doing here? It seems to me that you’re not even attempting to strike at the minions of Primordial Ocean, not to mention succeeding in it.”

“We’re trying to survive!”

“Seem to be wasting your time so far, but never mind that. I can help you out with that, though even with my power you won’t suddenly be capable of matching the seventh realm entities that Primordial Ocean manifests rather casually,” Wei Yi said, having perceived a good hundred or so such entities just in the time that they had been talking, “The dragons will still contribute far more to the battle than any of you will.”

Their looks were able to ask a question in place of words, for all of them seemed to be rather shocked at the premise of dragons participating in the conflict, but there was no better answer to their silent amazement than the display of a dragon’s power.

Liquid entities had been all around them, avoiding the area so far due to the Ascendant’s quiet intervention with some of her energy. A sound that did not reach the people under her current protection alerted all of the monstrosities striding about, and they raised whatever passed for heads on their bodies up, towards a series of enormous entities and swooped in and unleashed an enormous sea of flame upon their targets, scorching any flesh that remained and melting the liquid that made up the rest of their mass.

It took only a brief while for all of them to melt completely, and none of the terrain was damaged by some unseen miracle to the people of the Shi District.

‘I’ll not say that I had put up a barrier to prevent these raging horny beasts from simply burning everything to a crisp,’ the Ascendant thought, her mind drifting off a little, ‘I might be able to say such things in front of others as well, given that they do have pretty good horns. Jia Rong would appreciate them, probably.’

Although she had learned quite a bit about the million year old girl in the time she had spent with her and the other Arbiters, she managed to avoid gathering whether the demonic woman had any appreciation for those horns upon her head, or the claws upon her hands. Frankly, the longer she was continuing on her path, the more she was certain that the Ascendant’s Library wasn’t quite as perfect as she thought, for there were too many small facts that had to have appeared, and yet they weren’t recorded. It was very likely that they had been there at some point, but were then either lost or destroyed for some reason that was beyond her.

Frankly, it was rather concerning, but at the very least the important things remained within her mental domain, and the less important ones could be acquired again and stored more securely or in an additional wing of the Ascendant’s Library now that she knew the problem was present.

“D-Dragons!”

“I did tell you.”

“What kinds of things do you need us to do, Master of Dragon- uh, Ascendant?”

“First of all, here’s a map of the Shi District, as it currently appears to be to my divine sense,” Wei Yi ignored the slip of the tongue and produced a map of killing will upon the nearest open space, complete with verticality to represent the taller and lower areas, as well as plenty of markers for their foes and allies, “Just in case you’re wondering, I cleared up that area there, but Primordial Ocean’s minions are already pouring in to reclaim it. Starting from the outside will be best, and will allow for areas to be fortified and reclaimed by the outside more easily.”

“Okay… By the way, the spatial stabilisation point…”

“If you know of it, just tell me already instead of forgetting all about it while trying to figure out my title.”

“It’s in the western portion of the Shi District.”

“I noticed. The Yi City Web isn’t linked to this side of the continent, at least not directly, and there is no spatial stabilisation point in the area, so it has to be over there, even if Primordial Ocean is ruining any chance of me being able to find it right now. Still, when we get around to it, I am taking it, whatever you try to say about it.”

“There’s no problem with that, Ascendant! On our own, as we are, we wouldn’t even be able to get out of this place alive, not to mention reclaiming the Shi District or its spatial stabilisation points… Thank you.”

“Doing that too soon, but I won’t object.”

She expected to succeed in time, as there would be no point in presuming otherwise, but she expected that there might well be a long time before she would manage to do so. By that point, this woman would likely forget all about this day, not that the Ascendant would object to being thanked yet again, so long as the woman grew a little smarter by that time.

‘No, I’m being a little harsh to her right now. It’s only due to the presence of the Magnanimous – or Gluttonous, in this case – Leech in the district that I am so agitated…’

“if you ever require any assistance, I would be more than happy to provide it,” the voice of the mother of the Master of Yi City reached her from the Kong Prison Realm, “Given the current situation, it might be best for both of us to relax and-”

‘We don’t have the luxury of relaxation. Once I have figured out a plan for this lot, I will need to see which methods are most effective against Primordial Ocean’s minions and, by extension, the Primordial Deity itself. You can do what you like – though I would prefer you to aid with managing the spatial realm and improving it, as well as checking whether Testament can be shoved in there without breaking everything…’ the Ascendant spoke while allowing her Endless Calculation to take care of the duller details of her plan, ‘I asked you to do that a while ago, hadn’t I?’

Yi Shi Ming replied within her mind, “It is very likely that this will not be possible. The Laws of Testament and the Kong Prison Realm differ too greatly, and putting spatial realms together is not something that I or Shi Meng had any experience with. Nonetheless, I shall attempt to figure out a solution to your query while I cannot assist you with things at the Shi District.”

‘Then, let’s get on with it.’