Path of the Ascendant

Two hours later, their work was complete. The current state of the adaptive wood island was completely incomparable to what it used to be, as it now more closely resembled a ship than a random chunk of land. Due to the number of people who had worked on it, and how little direction was given to them, the ship also looked to have been put together from components of several different ships, with one of them seemingly having been designed by a child.

Nevertheless, as Yi Wei had stated at the beginning of this project, the visuals did not matter, as the concept of aerodynamics was irrelevant within the endless void between worlds.

What mattered far more were the inscriptions and arrays placed all around, and within, the land ship. Compared to her original intention of having one or two of both for movement and energy, the final blueprint ended up having more than thirty of each, as did the land ship. If the first idea she had was a small rowboat for the void, then this was closer to a great capital ship.

At the very least, she hoped that it could be described as such, especially if they somehow came across another such land ship. It would be rather embarrassing if they had a similar crew, yet a far better and more efficient design.

“Anyway, everything seems to be ready,” she muttered to herself, standing at the equivalent of the bridge, where the arrays and inscriptions could be controlled from, “Destroy the bridge!”

Yi Guanyu and another cultivator in the Emergent Anchor realm severed the connection between the land ship and the rest of the terrain, with one of them doing so with some hesitation, while Yi Guanyu seemed to be outright terrified. Still, they obeyed her, and the land ship did not sink, nor did it float. It simply remained stationary in the void as it surrounded it completely, removing any trace of the small wooden world from sight.

Only then did Yi Guanyu finally relax, sitting down straight on the ground without any hesitation.

“Alright, step one is a success. Everyone who has a large quantity of planar energy remaining, please go to the collection points and prepare for the activation process.”

A group of ten, the exact same number as the quantity of collection points, headed to edges of the ship and kneeled down beside the collection points, which were just arrays that would funnel their planar energy into the Networking Web array, which would then hold that energy and send it to arrays and inscriptions that need it.

When their energy began to flow into the land ship, Yi Wei also contributed a small quantity of her own energy. She gave it just enough time to flow into the Networking Web, and then pressed her hand down onto the control surface whilst activating it with her spiritual will.

“Hold on everyone, I can’t guarantee that this will be comfortable,” she stated whilst sitting down.

Just as she managed to plant her behind on the bark-covered captain’s chair, the entire landmass shook wildly, almost as if a great font of earth flame was about to erupt from within. Their combined planar energies coursed within the adaptive wood, making the inside of the wood glow with a rainbow of ever-changing colours. Whenever one of the arrays lit up during its activation, it would send a great tremor through the land ship, and when an inscription was filled with energy, it produced a loud cracking sound that made those aboard the ship worry if it was about to break into small pieces, and doom them to suffer in the void.

Well, Yi Guanyu was most concerned about this, as he hadn’t paid attention to Yi Wei’s explanation of the void between world’s effect, though the people who could see the inscriptions for themselves knew that the sound came from the adaptive wood living up to its name and changing itself to suit the inscriptions better.

One minute, then two, and then three, passed, without any clear outcome, but, all of a sudden, Yi Wei leapt to her feet and loudly declared, “It is working! The land ship can sail!”

And sail it did. The enormous chunk of land slowly moved, floating up and to the side to avoid any potential remains of the wooden world. With ten people standing around the sides, a few with long-range attacks functioning as cannons and with Yi Wei in her hastily crafted wooden chair, the land ship sailed through the void.

She dropped back to her seat and let out a relieved sigh. Although she had a reasonably high degree of confidence in her own work, there was a slightly higher chance of failure than she had claimed to Yi Guanyu upon her initial mention of the idea, as putting together so many different inscriptions and arrays isn’t guaranteed to be safe. Besides simply failing, there are a hundred different negative outcomes that can occur from a simple mistake within the Networking Web array, or the propulsion arrays, or any one of the thirty inscriptions, some of which may have been avoided due to the natural properties of the adaptive wood correcting them prior to their occurrence.

In fact, had they been on any site other than the one they had, perhaps if they were still in that icy maze, then this project would have fallen apart completely at any of the stages prior to the ship’s activation.

Perhaps this was her strange luck showing up again, or maybe her plan of the land ship had partially originated from the fact that she had found herself atop a great chunk of wood without any other solutions, but whatever the reason behind this success, it was one that she wouldn’t have had in any other situation, and so she was determined to learn as much as possible from it.

‘For instance, the fact that adaptive wood is an incredible material for land ships is something that needs to be remembered, as well as the fact that the void between worlds can be relatively easy to suppress so long as it is not aggravated. Currently, for us, it is important to avoid anyone doing such a thing, though if we find Yi Fenwu, know where the exit door is relative to our true position within the void, and have some planar energy to spare, it would be a good idea to easily dispose of her with the void…’ she considered, though she had to dismiss the plan after a little more thought, ‘No, I’d like to get my hands on the black token she used to control Yi Bai. I can’t be sure that she will return to her normal state after it is destroyed, nor do I know whether that thing hides anything that might be useful to me, Fen Zhi, Yi Bai or anyone else.’

“So, Yi Wei, how are we going to be able to find anything?” asked Yi Guanyu after he had made his way up to the bridge.

“Do you really think that I wouldn’t have thought about this after coming up with something like the land ship? We don’t really need to do anything, since we are currently within the void between worlds that belongs to the wooden sector. Since it is used to limit vision between segments, the visibility is going to be incredibly low. Once we get out of the sector, however, it will expand based on the density of the void between worlds. It should be enough for us to see a glimpse of the other world segments, so just hold on for a minute,” she answered, casually controlling the land ship.

“Fine… How do you know so much, anyway?” he said, finding a smooth enough place to rest.

“Reading, I suppose. I’ve done a whole lot of reading in my time, about pretty much everything you can think of.”

“I know an elder of the family who has spent a whole lot of time reading, perhaps more than seventeen years doing nothing more than studying various texts and books, and I don’t think that he would be able to tell me about… what did you call it? Void density?”

“Well, people do have different areas of study. He might be far more knowledgeable in terms of geological formations, which I am not too well-versed in,” Yi Wei suggested.

“Still, how fast must you be able to read, and where have you been finding things like information on the void between worlds, that Jiang Ping Shimeng, and everything about inscriptions, arrays and pills? How much time did you spend in the library?”

“I suppose I have been called a quick reader before,” she mentioned, her mind briefly becoming drawn to the segment of the Gilded Library where the book on Yi Yaling was stored. She recalled her little sister-like behaviour and wondered what her situation was at the present moment. Was she still doing silly things that get her in trouble? What cultivation stage and realm had she reached? Although she didn’t quite want to admit this, Yi Wei did miss her ever so slightly.

“In that respect, so have I, a few times. How quickly could you read the average technique manual?”

“If, by average technique manual, you mean something like a Bull Punch skill, then I can go through it in less than a minute, even quicker with spiritual will,” Yi Wei answered casually.

“Oh, so it’s one minut- WHAT?” he yelled, attracting the attention of everyone who stood on the surface of the ship. If he had been drinking something, it would have certainly been spat out onto the ground at great velocity. “What in the world did you eat a child? Were you breast-fed elixirs and pills to accelerate your mind and comprehension or something?”

“Doubt it. As you can see, I’m a servant, and my parents died shortly after I reached the age of four, so they wouldn’t have been able to afford even a single pill of worth, not to mention an elixir. I have a decent memory, so I’m sure I would remember consuming a miracle fruit by accident at some point, but I haven’t done that either, and I can guarantee you that I’ve never been experimented on by people so my reading speed couldn’t have come from that either,” she said, listing every possibility she could think of, “To begin with, I can’t really understand why my ability to read at a high speed is so unusual. Is that really so difficult for everyone else?”

“I… I don’t even know how to explain this to you. Don’t you read every word?”

Yi Wei shrugged – there was no need to reply to that, so she didn’t – and instead ripped of another part of the land ship and quickly shaped it into a book with her spiritual will before giving it to Yi Guanyu, “Here, show me how you read this.”

“What is… You’ve made a book this quickly? Couldn’t you have made the entire land ship on your own?” he asked, taking it from her and looking through it.

“I’m afraid not. The range of my spiritual will and planar energy combined are insufficient for that sort of thing,” she replied, waiting for him to start reading the book before she realised that he was staring at her, “What?”

“You could have succeeded if that wasn’t an issue?”

“That seems to be the case, yes. Why would you assume that I wouldn’t be able to do so when I have already created a number of arrays, inscriptions, a book, a chair and a table without much effort?”

“Hm…” he mumbled and opened the book to the first page.

A minute later, he finally turned the page with an exasperated expression, and it was clear that although he had read the text, he had not comprehended it beyond the text itself. Any principles that were held within were unclear to him at best, and if there was any deeper meaning to any of the statements within, he would not be able to understand them no matter how much time was given to him.

“What in the heavens is this? What does any of this mean? Is this something you’ve read in a few minutes? Are you even human?”

“Isn’t that a rude thing to ask, akin to asking a woman about her age?” Yi Wei replied, “Anyhow, I would like to ask you about your book-reading experience. Was the material a little too difficult for you? Have you not read the works of Xia Daoling before?”

“Who is Xia Daoling?”

“I guess that’s a no, then. What sorts of thing does someone in the middle-class of the family read during their studies? Could you give me an author or a title?”

“The most complex thing I’ve ever read is ‘Copper and Blood: Miraculous Connection for Cultivators’ and ‘The Profound Transformation of Water to Ice and Steam’, though I cannot recall the author of either one. I learned the first to combat metal cultivators, who I had been having difficulties opposing, and the second to improve in my own cultivation, which had been stagnating at the time,” he stated.

‘I think I’ve read those two as well… Wait a minute, is that it?’ she asked herself when she found those books within the Gilded Library, “I don’t intend to be impolite, but I had initially assumed that these books were meant for people around the age of twelve. Is this really it?”

“When did you read them, then?”

“Around two years prior to the time I began to cultivate, so… around the age of ten? Again, sorry for that, but I guess that this explains some of the difference between us. If you had also started to read things like this at that age, you might have known a bit more, though the reading speed that I possess does seem to be uncommon regardless of someone’s overall maturity and quantity of knowledge,” Yi Wei concluded, sighing in disappointment that she would be unlikely to find someone to read books with at the same pace, “Anyway, I think we should be nearing the edge of this segment of the void.”

Both of them looked out and saw the truth of her words. The void between worlds, an entity that seemed completely impenetrable just seconds ago suddenly began to clear, and, far in the distance, above, below and around them, they were able to see rectangular chunks of all sorts of terrain. Some were whole, others seemed to be consumed right in front of them, but they could only see the nearest few world chunks with any degree of clarity. The rest were still obscured by the endless void.

“How strange. This particular void between voids is curiously low-density. Not something I was expecting from this place…”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Look at how clearly you can see the distant landmass. That indicates that the density of the void is almost at the lowest point it can be, according to Jiang Ping Shimeng, if this world is to actually retain any stability.”

“Eh… I’m afraid that you’ve lost me again. If this stuff is low density, then what in the heavens would high density look like? And what does that even mean?”

“Well, to answer your second question first, the density of the void between worlds is a bit like the intensity of it. The higher the density, the higher the quantity of planar energy within that world will be, and the stability of the world will increase, though if it is damaged to the point of causing the erosion of that void, it will be consumed far quicker. I’d give you a more detailed account, but neither I nor Jiang Ping Shimeng have a better idea about this matter. Few people headed into the void between worlds for entertainment in the times that creating pocket dimensions was easier than it is now,” she explained, taking back the previous book she had given him and creating the records she was currently talking about with it, “If this world had a more typical, denser void between worlds, then the only thing you would see is the edge of the landmasses above and below us.”

“Alright then, you’re the expert, so I believe you. Where are we going from here?”

Yi Wei looked around, sending a wisp of cosmic energy to her eyes before spotting something of value in the distance, “There! I think I see a trace of a Lock Obelisk’s aura over there, so I could bring us over. I don’t think it has been used yet, so Yi Fenwu hasn’t found it so far. It could be a good place to ambush her, or else just a place for you to get your first key.”

“You’ve also memorised the aura of a Lock Obelisk? How are you a servant of the family, and not the patriarch’s heir?”

“Tell me which approach you want to take, please,” she said, while thinking, ‘You know that it’s not that simple and you know that just as well as any member of the family, so please don’t tease me with such ideas. I wouldn’t want to have a silly dream of ruling the family.’

“Can you also notice Yi Fenwu’s aura?”

“No. The Lock Obelisks are connected to the dimension itself, so the traces of their energy are noticeable from far away, while Yi Fenwu has not yet had the idea of connecting to the void itself. Before you ask, let me warn you ahead of time that attempting to unite with a dimension is not something you should do unless the dimension itself somehow develops a consciousness and permits this,” she warned him, ‘As for spotting the aura of the Lock Obelisk… I’m not sure how I managed that, to be honest. I wasn’t able to do it previously, so it might have something to do with my newly acquired half-formed planar anchor. Don’t need to tell him that, though.’

“Would you be able to tell if the obelisk had been used from far away?”

“This is a little more difficult, but I might have a way. Could you give me a moment?” she asked, and upon receiving his affirmation, she stood up from the captain’s seat and went past the control surface, where she then kneeled down and began carving something in the wood purely via her spiritual will.

Although she had no way of knowing when a Lock Obelisk was used, as the only times she had witnessed it with enough clarity to observe every part of the process were the times that she had used them in the outside world, where it was far more difficult to track the connection to the Kong Holy Grounds, she did still possess all four of the outer keys as a reference.

Based on what she had seen, the inner keys were no different from the ones she had, so, with the right type of tracking array, it wouldn’t be impossible to follow the aura of the keys to their two owners.

Naturally, she had no intention to reveal her ownership of a set of keys, so while she was working on the array she also modified it to avoid a certain type of simple aura that could be released by a one-star array, which she then drew on her arm using her planar energy, and activated it.

Although planar energy should typically be unable to sustain an active array prior to the fourth realm, she had kept her energy within her own body, where it could retain its crystal form, and used the stabilising effect of the five-sided planar anchor in order to further strengthen it, allowing it to fulfil its intended function.

Once she confirmed that it was working as intended, and that it would continue to do so for the foreseeable future, she activated the array she made within the wood, and stepped back.

After a few seconds of gathering energy, the array suddenly projected a translucent sphere a metre above itself, with a single dot glowing in the middle.

“There. This is a simple Energy Tracking array, and it should show us the location of one of the keys, or perhaps the activation of an obelisk, or something to a similar effect. The actual function will be confirmed later, but for now I can confirm that if we find Yi Fenwu within the range of the array, we will know about it,” she explained to Yi Guanyu, who still struggled to understand anything, “Now what do you want to do?”

“… Let’s camp that-”

Before he could finish, they both saw another spot appear within the sphere created by the Energy Tracking array, below them and to their left, at the very edge of the sphere.

“We’ve found her! Shall we go and intercept?”

“You know, I think I understand why that Yi Meng wanted to become your disciple. Alright, let’s go!”