Path of the Ascendant

‘At least the strongest of the seventh realm monsters are being kept in the barrier, so the Patriarchs can take care of most of them,’ the Ascendant thought as she observed the scene of a few dragons fighting the minions of Primordial Energy, ‘Is it just me, or has Primordial Energy lost a stage since I’ve last seen it?’

It was a little difficult to tell with a Primordial Deity, but it did appear to have lost out on a significant portion of its previous aura. In theory, she should have only dealt some temporary damage to it before it simply recovered thanks to its eighth realm property, but given that its entire existence was planar energy, perhaps there was some permanent damage that could be done by stealing its power, a thing that she could do with incredible ease. As such, she was considering whether it might be a good idea to target this Primordial Deity right away, or if Primordial Energy might be a good tool for elevating the world’s overall level of energy since it had already progressed.

That was something she would consider later, as she was more interested in getting to master her current level of strength, and preparing for the inevitable appearance of the two Primordial Deities that were not currently sealed: Primordial Metal and Entropy.

For the moment, Primordial Invader, which was not sealed with the typical barrier, was not on the list as the Heavenly Masters of the Wu District were able to handle him surprisingly well. While they were still able to fight, it was best not to challenge an entity that she wasn’t sure she could beat. It did not adhere to the typical natural Laws of the world, so her Law-oriented methods did not function very well against it. Additionally, the Heavenly Masters were slowly rising in stage, so they might well get to the seventh and eighth realms by the end.

If they were able to rise to that level and remain alive, she would have a number of powerful combatants on her side that had personal experience with combatting one of the stranger Primordial Deities. The amount that would translate to other Primordial Deities would be minimal, but it was better than nothing.

Anyway, with Primordial Invader out of consideration, she had only Primordial Metal and Entropy. The latter also couldn’t make for a good target, as she had no clue where it was.

‘With the deepening of… everything, I suppose that I might be able to perceive the trembling of entropic principles, but chasing that ancient worm is still troublesome,’ she thought, glancing over to the east, ‘Meanwhile, Primordial Metal is sitting somewhere in those territories, and it has yet to make an appearance despite there being several opportune times. Most likely, it is influencing a territory there before heading out to target Yi City.’

There was a good reason to target it while it was still in the middle of that process, but there were quite a few others against it, most in the form of the home territory advantage and the presence of forces hostile to Yi City. They may not be particularly powerful, but they would still be a problem.

By letting Primordial Metal come to her lands, where her people might be prepared for its appearance, she could eliminate most of its support and cut it down in a place where her Dao of Law was strongest, thanks to its resonance with her Conqueror’s Eye, Elder Watcher and other territorial abilities. The people of Yi City would be on her side in the conflict, for few would be stupid enough to do otherwise when she was responsible for saving them and protecting them from both the Great Leeches and Primordial Deities, whereas the people of the Empire of the Dawn, the Coastal Lord’s Kingdom, and maybe even the Heavenly Peak Court, if it is reached by Primordial Metal, might have mixed feelings about the growing power to their west.

Fighting a Primordial Deity while she lacked much control over her strength was also an issue, as it would damage things she wanted to keep safe and limit the accuracy with which she could act, negatively affecting just about everything she attempted to do. It was not wise to attempt it while she was still a realm behind those ancient behemoths in vaguely humanoid form.

So, instead of doing that, she headed to the land of corruption, the territory between the enigmatic Huang District and rather plain Yi District, and chose to be the only one that would fight the things that emerged from the barrier. It had to be noted that the previous pure white light of the barrier had changed since she had last visited, and gained an unpleasant violet undertone, though that much was expected given the nature of Primordial Corruption. It was something that both Wei Yi and Xu Shi Meng had guessed would happen before they even set up the barrier.

As the barrier itself was affected, the ground behind it looked even more hideous, writhing and almost breathing in a manner that did not look right whatsoever. It was a terrible sight.

Monsters within the territory mostly remained there, fortunately, for their presence outside instantly rotted the environment and turned it into something perverted, and not in any of the more positive meanings of the word. Most likely, Primordial Corruption wanted to maintain that previous odd air of nonchalance while devouring whatever it could from the barrier around it, until it was able to overcome the Ascendant and Xu Shi Meng.

Just as with other opponents that she currently wasn’t able to confront, she had to hold back still, as she had not figured out a way to totally negate the corruptive properties of the Primordial Deity. It could, after all, attack something that existed at the ninth realm – as far as she was able to tell, anyway – and just like with Primordial Invader, it didn’t quite adhere to the natural order of things to the extent that Law could be used to resist it sufficiently for her liking. Enforcing existing Law would be effective, but corruption might well do the same as she did and pervert the Law into something useful for the Primordial Deity instead.

Its minions carried its influence, but they were still less powerful. Even if they focused on corrupting her, she would have enough power to resist their attempts, and studying the otherworldly tales accumulating within the Dimensional Domain meant she wouldn’t fall for any tricks, either.

‘Really, the more of their stories they reproduce here – or produce, since I don’t have a clue what the people in their worlds have and have not already come up with – the more I am both concerned and impressed. If Primordial Corruption touched one of them, could it form a gateway into their world? Nah, unlikely, but it would make it all the more important that I keep them away from the stranger Primordial Deities,’ Wei Yi thought to herself.

She stopped by one of the larger entities, and brought out Moon Splitter before bringing it to her waist, holding on to it as if she was to unsheathe it in a glorious fashion.

Of course, she could do so, but she instead wished to skip that part of the process and simply cut into the entity that stood before her. It hadn’t realised that she was near it, yet, but she would rather avoid letting it do so as it was the most absurd mass of flesh, tentacles and a whole lot of other things that she did not want to touch at all. Literally, there was no context in which the kinds of limbs and surfaces that existed on the seven-legged, thousand-tentacled horror would be welcome anywhere in her vicinity.

That was not the greatest motivation she could have had, but it seemed to work well enough when combined with the world’s growth and her rising insights into various Dao thanks to defeating the Primordial Deities.

‘I still cannot remove every aspect of an attack, but if I work out every step, then I can put each one together and eliminate everything but the strike itself. For now, I ought to focus upon eliminating the swing. The motion of the swing. I need to cut without the blade moving. No planar energy, no Sword Dao, only Law…’ the Ascendant thought, holding the blade so steadily that space itself seemed to freeze around it. In a way, that did happen thanks to the influence of her Dao of Space, but she would not use it for an attack for so long as she believed in the Dao of Law.

She had stuck to it for this long, and she would never abandon it now.

Thus, keeping the sword still, she shut her eyes and focused on the chains that she could perceive most clearly with her divine sense. They were everywhere, endlessly tangled yet perfectly meshed, and one of them controlled the fate of her blade, the swing that it could perform, the cut that it could make. Right now, she would still include the weapon, include the time it takes to swing it, include the energy, air resistance, and all else, but exclude the swing itself.

By that point, the monster she was facing observed her presence. It turned toward her, if folding onto itself and twisting various parts of the body into place could be called turning, and opened one jaw.

A strange flash passed through the air, rather slowly, to the point that it could be followed by an ordinary eye. If it were to be made with a weapon, it would be a simple swing, so simple that a child could see through it and either dodge or block it – the former being more likely in the case of an actual child – making it almost laughable.

Despite that, it severed the monstrosity in half, and its blood remained on Moon Splitter.

‘One.’

The next moment, she vanished, and appeared elsewhere, her blade held just as still as before, but her focus was greater. In the first swing that never was, she realised that she had gained something in the Dao of Law, but she could not understand it no matter how much she tried without attempting to swing again. She couldn’t even begin to describe it as anything other than an odd but hardly unpleasant familiarity, though she knew not with what.

Regardless, she placed herself elsewhere, and tried again, then again, then again. She didn’t have all the time in the world, but she would act as if she did for now.

 

She had defeated Primordial Ocean on the seventeenth of the tenth month, in the year 1,201,523. Four days were spent on practise and training, and in that time, she had recovered full control over her power. Her killing will remained still for now, and so did her Law Omission, but she had managed to clarify some aspects of the aforementioned familiarity.

It was clearly related to her Dao of Law, for she found that selecting the right chains was slightly easier than it had been before, but she still struggled to perceive the cause of this improvement. Perhaps she had made some progress with her true Dao, or perhaps she was beginning to personally catch up to the understanding someone in the Great Stride stage should have had already. After all, most of her comprehension was due to the false knowledge of the heavens, one that she could not freely access or confirm.

Whatever it was, it was in her favour, so she currently prioritised using it to her advantage before comprehending the exact source and nature of this improvement. After all, she had bigger problems for the moment, and likely for quite a long while after this one was dealt with.

As expected, it was Primordial Metal. The Primordial Deity came from the east, from the lands of the Empire of the Dawn, and it did not come alone. From her observation, it appeared that the entirety of that Empire was brought together with its power, and they chose the Jiang District as their first target for assault. Each member of their forces was no weaker than the sixth realm, the strongest occupying the upper seventh realm, but all of them had clearly not achieved this purely due to their own power.

Jagged metal shards, broken blades and twisted fragments filled their flesh, much of it seeming to be growing right out of them. It was obvious that they were changed by Primordial Metal.

At the back, yet clearly in charge of the crowd, was a man close to the eighth realm, but infinitely far from it, and his state was even more ruined by the Primordial Deity than any of the others. If there was flesh within that metal shell, then even her divine sense struggled to perceive it beyond a mere hope that some aspect of it remained.

Most likely, this man was the emperor of the Empire of the Dawn, as could be observed by the banner-carrying soldiers next to him, and the symbol of a rising sun overshadowed by a jagged metallic figure upon the banners and his armour. Of course, the fact that he was leading the army was enough of an indicator of his status – although she noticed quite soon that it might well be that this emperor did not retain recognisable gender characteristics, so for all she knew, the Empire of the Dawn was ruled by an Empress, not that it mattered whatsoever.

She wasn’t someone that would act differently based on gender, unless it came to romance or sex, though that was only natural. Everyone had their own preferences, whether it was in love, food, entertainment activities or whatever else one could imagine. To have no preference would be unusual.

Anyway, she was able to detect their arrival before the relatively slowly marching armies made their way near the Jiang District’s walls and its people, so she would naturally never permit them to progress without her say. Since they were the forces of Primordial Metal no matter how she looked at them, she wouldn’t give them the opportunity to intrude upon her lands for as long as she had the power to stop them.

Thus, she appeared before the enormous army, holding Moon Splitter in one hand while keeping it down. There would be a fight, but raising a sword was not necessary.

“Cease your advance. Explain your purpose before I obliterate you and your entire nation.”

“Kraah… ah…”

“Uh-huh. Nice communication, there,” the Ascendant muttered, trying to tone down her killing will while she had the chance to do so, “Emperor, do you have nothing to say as you invade? What a kind ruler you are.”

She had no clue whether he was considered a kind ruler, but sarcasm was always pleasant.

“The Emperor does not need to speak with you! He is blessed by Primordial Metal, god of our nation!”

‘Well, that’s fantastic. I can’t be sure whether they had believed this before they were affected, but given the fact that they have been changed to this significant degree, it is very likely that the majority submitted willingly and eagerly,’ Wei Yi noted, confirming that none in the crowd were lacking in metallic shards on the insides of their bodies, even if they were less visible outside, “To confirm, you side with Primordial Metal over humanity?”

“Our god shall dominate-”

She did not allow their nonsense to continue and shifted her hold on Moon Splitter, moving her left Arm down onto the blade and her right onto the handle. It was a common pose for one that wished to unsheathe a blade hanging on the belt, but she had no sheath, and she had no reason to draw it in a literal manner.

The moment after, a thousand mirages appeared before the troops of the Empire of the Dawn, and each one performed a motion that was simple, yet could not be followed clearly.

It was all that preceded a thousand vast cuts manifesting in the army, slicing through countless warriors as easily as a sword might cut through air. None of the metal shards and pieces within their flesh had even the slightest chance of enduring the attack, and yet none could even perceive it.

“Emperor and Primordial Metal. If one of you two think you can intrude, then you will need to come yourselves. The minions you have produced will merely flood the soil with metallic blood, and taint this place with your stench forever,” she said, shifting her grip on the blade, “Actually, do exactly that. It would give me all the more motivation to end you and purify the land with your own power. Well? Come at me.”

“YOU. CUT. YOU,” a voice burst out from the distance, cutting the air and her ears with the most unpleasant screech of metal on metal that she had ever heard.

The voice did not give the impression that the entity was less intelligent than its counterparts, but rather that the sheer difficulty of producing a coherent sound via a method as unsophisticated as Primordial Metal’s was a struggle that it did not wish to go through. It would be better if it did remain quiet, as the flora within the nearest few miles of its voice died almost instantly.

Although the bodies of the Empire of the Dawn’s people suffered also, they nonetheless obeyed the instruction as if it was a command from the heavens. Each warrior dropped their previous slow marching pace and rushed in with the greatest speed that they could manage, resulting in a messy wave of flesh and metal that converged upon the Ascendant’s position with a great number of blades, spears, axes, maces, hammers and even ordinary farming scythes effectively melting into a single mass of iron and steel.

‘And yet, that is not Primordial Metal’s nature, is it? Each one of these people have shards within their bodies, and even now that they effectively melt into a single attack, every single shard remains ready to cut me. I swear, the levels of power demonstrated by these Primordial Deities is horrendously inconsistent, and I should be glad that Primordial Nature popped out first. If I had to deal with this, it might have been difficult.’

To cut a sea of shards would be foolish, even if her blade could cut through quite a bit, especially when she had the Dao of Law and had the ability to force the illogical to be logical, and the opposite to also be true.

In this case, she needed to make things behave as they ought to, so she had the world on her side.

All that her foes could hear was a faint jangling of a chain, but the effect became obvious in an instant. The tidal wave of steel shards broke apart into individual men and women, who quickly fell and tripped over one another as they were far too close to one another to possibly continue advancing alongside one another without incident.

The force of the wave was nullified in an instant, and then it was time for a quick application of Omit Slash and Omit Attacker. She had no ability to unify the two into one proper technique just yet, but her first strike against the army was a decent enough combination to take down enemies at this level. With Omit Attacker, she duplicated her presence elsewhere through the manipulation of chains, and with Omit Slash, she could perform an attack without the necessary movements. This permitted her to overcome some of the potential weaknesses of both methods, but the perfect fusion would require far more work.

Once a thousand mirages appeared and cut through the army, her attention returned to the Emperor and Primordial Metal. She couldn’t see the latter figure, as it was somewhere in the depths of the Empire of the Dawn, but she could sense its powerful aura consuming the nation that it had so easily occupied. That thing was not content with sitting still, though she couldn’t determine whether that also included its physical state or not. Its energy certainly was in motion.

As with the other Primordial Deities, it did not fight with typical techniques, for it had neither the same cultivation nor the same meridians as humans did. Instead, it used the power of the world, amplifying certain natural Laws beyond their typical limits and forcing them to exist where they shouldn’t.

In this case, it exploited the presence of countless broken and split metal soldiers, using their shards and their bodies as shards to manifest a two-fold array of metal shards that suddenly thrust towards Wei Yi once more, a spear forming from them and rushing towards her heart as naturally as a river would flow downstream, or the sun rose and fell every single day, without end, without hesitation, without deviation. All Law was supposed to act like that, but it could only do so when nothing interfered, when no other Law forced change to it.

‘So, since I’m self-imposing the restriction of using only Law in this fight, at least for now, I need to understand this. What exactly puts planar energy above everything else? Can it not be placed lower in the order of superiority, or eliminated entirely? After all, it is almost false in comparison to such things as kinetic energy or thermal energy, which have an exact quantity and location…’

Indeed, planar energy was almost ephemeral, able to exist and not exist whenever and wherever a cultivator wished it to be. It had no defined volume, no defined effect, nothing of the sort.

Why should it ever be placed as highly as other forms of energy? How could such a thing even share the same term, the same name as clear factors that should pervade every reality within which Laws even vaguely resembled those of the Planar Continents, and of the world that the otherworldly demons came from? It was already obvious that it was done by a will of some kind, whether that was the will of the heavens or something or someone above it, but the purpose still remained elusive.

‘Still, with natural Laws, understanding why something happens isn’t necessary if one knows it does.’

When it came to the negotiable rules of society, understanding the purpose of a law permitted acting around it, or using it to one’s own advantage while breaking it by referring to the spirit of the law, among many other uses. Such a thing could not be done with natural Law. It just was, and while one could understand why it happened – such as the principles of atoms, forces and whatever else the otherworldly demons had come up with that she could not yet understand in full – it didn’t help with simply using a Law to one’s advantage. This applied even more so to the Ascendant, who used chains of Law instead of any other method.

It let her touch the Laws directly, instead of using some round-about way that did require greater understanding. In this manner, a lack of knowledge in one area could be made up for with knowledge in another, just as greater Dao improved lesser Dao that were placed beneath them.

With these chains of Law, a single one could dominate the world if used correctly, and in this case, a single shifting length of nothingness could stop countless shards.

Each one fell for a moment, but before the majority could even touch the ground, they began to rise once more. A single chain wielded with lacking knowledge didn’t overwhelm the natural connection that a Primordial Deity had to the world it inhabited, but it was more than enough to leap onto the pile of shards and rush past them, using the chains of Law to avoid touching any directly, and let her people take care of the spear of shards once it attempted to rise a second time.

“Come on, Emperor, will you not meet a visit from the nation that owns your land?”

She addressed that horrid metallic figure at the back of the army – which remained enormous despite the many that she had taken down – without much expectation of a reply, nor of a rational response from the people that the Primordial Deity had already changed. It was mostly to confirm to the people of Yi City that what they would fight would not be an army with opposing views and ideas, but instead a mindless horde lead by an entity that they could not control or supress in an ordinary manner, only by death.

It was important that the forces of the Empire of the Dawn were different from the people of the other outside nations, as she had some ideas for obtaining their aid, especially from the Heavenly Peak Court and Coastal Lord’s Kingdom.

So long as the two were clearly distinguished and separated, fighting alongside the other nations would be easier, not that she believed most people of Yi City to be particularly difficult to persuade so long as she simply instructed them to do as she required them to. Still, while she was holding back a little, it was best to plan ahead and ensure that there were as few potential failings in her path as she could guarantee.

“THING. ATTACK,” Primordial Metal’s horrendous screech sounded once again, and it only became clear that this was an order for the Emperor when his metallic body moved.

The metal figure was on a different level to its peers, even if both were similarly cursed by Primordial Metal’s power. Whatever power the leader of the Empire of the Dawn had originally seemed to be gone, or else he had originally been incredibly obsessed with metal shards and metal-type energy in general, for a massive swarm of shards quickly formed around him and assembled into another layer of armour.

He had already been larger than the average man, with the shards implanted in him increasing that even further, and now his technique boosted his size to nearly eight metres, letting him tower over the battlefield.

With her full abilities, she had the power to defeat this entity without too much difficulty, but that wouldn’t change her ability to take care of Primordial Metal. Rather, it would guarantee that its full attention would be on her, even if she could steal its power from the Emperor after defeating him. Thus, she did not intent to release her self-imposed restrictions, and would instead take advantage of the presence of two other nations to the Empire’s east.

For now, though, she would engage the thing that had been the Emperor in battle, and see how far her Law could take her.