Path of the Ascendant

Once she explained the situation to him, Yi Guanyu did not hesitate to agree with her, and so their land ship set off, grabbing Yi Ling as quickly as they were able to. The instant that the barrier separated from the world of water, they saw it being rapidly consumed by the void, devouring all of the planar water until all that was left was the great pearl-like structure. For whatever reason, that object was untouched, and even as it faded into the distance, it remained clear and pristine.

The moment that the mental effects from the pearl wore off, Yi Wei removed the relevant array from her arm and focused solely on the task of controlling the land ship. Although she made the process look simple, the fact that it was made in a bit of a rush meant that she had to manipulate all arrays individually through the Networking Web, which involved a great deal of mental calculation and prediction in order to get things right. If she didn’t focus, she could accidentally send herself and everyone aboard flying into a nearby world chunk to be devoured by the void between worlds, so removing even a single distraction made the situation much easier for her.

“Now that we’re going where we need to be, explain this situation to me. What do you mean by connecting to the void between worlds, and how in the heavens has that aggravated it?” Yi Guanyu questioned, looking into the distance as another small world chunk was consumed.

“To connect with the void is to attempt to claim the world within as your own. In theory, any random person with an external spiritual will can do so, but as I might have mentioned previously, to do so is the peak of folly unless the space contains an intelligent spirit that allows you to connect to it, or even control it. If you are not sufficiently strong to control a world like this, whether due to a lacking cultivation, will or any other number of factors, it will seep into you instead, recognise the fact that neither you nor it should exist within this world, and devour itself while taking you with it. To put it simply, if you try something that stupid, you and anyone else within the world will die, and the world will be gone forever, alongside any of the treasures within, or that were used in its creation,” she explained, “I don’t know what prompted that idiot to do this, but she will take us all with her if we don’t stop her.”

“What will happen if we kill her before the world is completely destroyed?”

“The most likely scenario is that we will cease the consumption of the world, and those world segments that are still mostly stable will persist. The less likely scenario is that the decay will persist, but in a different, slower manner, giving us a little more time. Worst case scenario is that her mind will have already been integrated into the world, at which point ending her physical body won’t help us at all. We need to get to her before that can happen.”

Yi Guanyu couldn’t speak for a few seconds as he checked the dome around him for any obvious signs of damage, “Seriously? It’s that easy to destroy an entire pocket dimension? Weren’t these once used as fortresses by powerful families?”

“Although I did say that anyone could do it, I did forget to mention that you need access to the void between worlds that typically lies concealed beneath the structure of the world. After I had damaged that world chunk, it led to the true void between worlds spilling out, and thus indirectly lead to this,” she replied, “Had I known that Yi Fenwu would do something like this, I would have been more careful.”

“In that case, can you go any faster?”

“Maybe if you stop talking, then I will be able to focus a little better. While I am good at multitasking, doing one thing at a time is still going to be easiest.”

As if to confirm that, the land ship shook as it brushed past a border within the void between worlds, then stopped just as suddenly when it exited. In that same moment, the various segments of land around them disappeared from sight momentarily, and all they could see was the great chunk of stone to their side.

“There’s that cave,” Yi Wei muttered, ‘As expected, the world segments are connected to one another without any clear logic. I’m guessing that those who made them created them first, then tried to connect each passage with another without too much thought, either to save time or to prevent any spread of the void between worlds from growing and limiting travel through the Kong Holy Grounds. After all, every single one of the passages seem to be consistent in where they lead, so unless they change with every hour or something, I can’t imagine anything else going on here.’

She shook her head lightly and focused, just as she said she should.

The land ship tilted up and stabilised itself as it ascended to the level of Yi Fenwu, and then progressed to the world segment where she stood.

When they drew closer, they saw that if they hadn’t had the Energy Tracking array, they would have still been able to observe her, as there was a great circle of light surrounding the world segment on which she was present. At the same time, the void seemed to warp around it, slowly being drawn towards it, like a thick fluid slowly seeping towards a hole within its container.

A faint pulling force acted on the land ship as they got closer, and with every breath in which they progressed, that force got stronger, pushing them towards the landmass at an ever-increasing speed.

“Yi Guanyu, tell me, would you like this ship to survive?” Yi Wei asked, temporarily resisting that pull with an additional quantity of her own planar energy, “Before you ask, yes, if this land ship crashes into that world segment at full speed, regardless of what it is made out of, the adaptive wood will ruin at least half of the arrays and inscriptions within in order to prevent itself from being harmed. We will, however, make it there four minutes faster.”

“Do you even need to ask me? Full speed, naturally!”

She shrugged in response and used the full volume of Speaker’s Illusion to address the crew of the land ship, “Attention! Get to the surface of the land ship now if you don’t want to die!”

Her voice echoed into the depths of the land ship, and moments later, the rush of feet across wood echoed right back out. All two-dozen people who had something to do below burst out of the depths and rushed to the top, where they were quickly guided to the planar energy collection points, before those who acted as the cannons on the land ship followed them.

It was only then that Yi Wei stopped slowing down the land ship and allowed it to accelerate.

The closer they got to land, the more the dome struggled to protect them. From a stable sphere, it rapidly devolved into an undulating chaotic mass of energy, kept in one piece by the excessive quantity of planar energy that was being granted to it.

Even the arrays that combined all of Yi Wei’s knowledge, which in turn came from the Kong and Yi family, eventually broke, putting the barrier in an even more precarious position.

However, they did so only a few seconds from the border within the void between worlds.

“Remember what I told you about holding on to the ship the last time we were heading for a world segment? Now, hold on a thousand times tighter! If you so much as move during this collision, then, and I will not repeat myself on this, you will die! Your life will go down the drain and you will have no chance to do anything else, no matter how stupid your goals are!” Yi Wei shouted, before freezing in place as she realised how she had phrased herself, ‘Wait, what was that? Neither the characters nor the memories of the Thunder Lord seem to be interfering, so… did I actually call everyone else’s goals and dreams… stupid? Eh?’

She had no time to further ponder her thoughts when they impacted into the separator between world segments, shaking the entire ship violently. The spherical barrier around them twisted and turned, until, with one final shake, it burst like a soap bubble.

“Yi Wei, was that-”

“Within my expectations!” she replied before Yi Guanyu could finish his sentence, “The void between worlds has a limited speed, and so long as we go to the connection point, we will be safe!”

The void between worlds began to encroach upon them, consuming more and more of the visibility around them. Some of the further edges were devoured before it finally got close to the landmass… and crashed into it faster than a dragon could fly at its peak speed.

That collision caused the edges of the void to rapidly recede as the world segment and the land ship united into one.

“Now, run!”

Everybody stood up, separated their planar energy from the collection points, and ran towards the sandy world segment. The instant that their ship crashed into the dunes, they began to spill toward the adaptive wood, covering the hull rapidly with sand as it joined the world. The light which surrounded the world segment also spread to the land ship, wrapping around it soundlessly.

With Yi Wei’s movement techniques, with which she was also able to grab Yi Ling and Yi Meng, and Yi Guanyu’s superior cultivation realm, they got onto land before the land ship was close to consumption, but not everyone was as fortunate.

A number of servants were devoured, reducing their overall number by three.

In the distance, amongst the low dunes, they saw Yi Fenwu’s figure, standing tall and with a straightened back, which faced them. Space warped around her, making her seem as if she did not belong to this world. Her hair, with its burnt tips, flowed wildly in the wind, and her robes resembled strips more so than a complete piece of clothing, with all of them also fluttering due to some unseen currents. At her sides were her arms, hanging freely.

‘Judging by that pose and posture, I have to assume that she has indeed merged with the void between worlds, just like I had assumed. Her strength will likely be significantly greater than before, nullifying the new lack of defensive items, though I can’t imagine that a mindless world will be able to come up with any tactics beyond just warping the space that it controls. In that case, I will need to go all out again… just without damaging the world further, or else I won’t be able to find the exit in time, and I will have even less luck if I intend to help the rest of the expedition along,’ she frowned, glancing into her pockets to find little more than a piece of the planar ice that she hadn’t left behind on the land ship, ‘By the looks of it, I can strengthen one attack with that water, if I melt it and use either cosmic energy or one of the Kong family’s techniques, but I don’t know if that might be instantly stopped by the world’s will. This is one of the things that is far less documented than I would have liked it to be, unfortunately.’

Fortunately, Yi Fenwu, or possibly her husk, did not turn to them, simply remaining in place while the distortion of space grew around it.

“I think it would be best to attack right now, and not give the world any time to stabilise itself within her. Every second that is wasted, just like this one, will cause it to become a little more capable,” Yi Wei suggested, already preparing her strongest attacks.

“… You’re the leader now. We’re doing whatever you say,” Yi Guanyu replied.

“Right… Attack with your strongest techniques! Right now!”

Although everyone was tired, with most of their planar energy exhausted, they still charged forward, splitting up so that no one attack could kill them in one, and drew upon their last vestiges of power.

Fire, water, metal, earth and wood bloomed around them, planar anchors of all types descended onto the sand, sinking a few inches into it upon landing, and planar energy from the world segment was all drawn towards them. A great crimson, violet and golden circle formed around Yi Fenwu’s position, all three colours blending together as if each one was a different arc of lightning merging into one.

For a brief moment, a single feeling was shared by everyone in the expedition – hope.

Then, as if to stomp onto it with all the world had to offer, that warping space that surrounded Yi Fenwu burst out without ceremony, slicing outwards in a hundred impossibly thin lines, piercing through light itself as easily as a typical blade cut slice through air.

In an instant, half of the group was split in half, as was the ground below them. The tear in space vanished, but their bodies were not healed. Without any sound, those affected fell to the ground in two separate pieces, their techniques and planar constructs broke into nothingness, and any semblance of their fighting spirit evaporated. Slowly, after a small delay, almost as if the heavens needed some time to understand what happened, blood began to pour out of their two halves.

Those that survived suddenly experienced their power drop by half, not just in terms of numbers, but also in terms of their attacks. Although they pulled through with them, they were barely sufficient.

Only Yi Wei managed to hold on and construct her attack without issue, and thus, she shouted the technique’s name, as she always had to do. Golden lightning, the purple cosmos and the golden-red blood that seemed to belong to the Golden Qilin all appeared from the heavens as she called them down upon the avatar of the world.

“Light of Divinity!”

It fell down onto Yi Fenwu’s still back like the lightning tribulation of a Daoist cultivator, and was just as powerful. Gold entwined with violet, surrounded by an endless flood of red that came after.

Before it touched the archer’s body, Yi Wei raised her free hand and brought it down, her palm facing the ground, and called upon that which resided deep within her planar aperture, the tower that had formed entirely without her own understanding nor control. She willed her planar anchor to descend behind her and it did so with a sound that was akin to the roar of a dragon or the cry of a phoenix in grandness, but at the same time it had no other similarity to them. It was a foreign sound that could not be heard anywhere else in the world, and the anchor that it preceded was no different.

The five-sided planar anchor fell from a great rift within the sky and collapsed onto the ground in a large explosion of sand. Faint sparks of golden light appeared and faded on one side, crimson light burned through the cracks on the other, blood and water mixed on the third while blood also stained the metallic surface of the fourth, and a smooth wooden surface covered the last.

On the very instant that it appeared, every trace of her planar energy suddenly spiked in power. The great three-coloured light from the heavens doubled in brightness, and it went without saying that the power within had also doubled.

At the same time, Yi Fenwu’s head snapped around, going to the absolute limit of what her neck could survive, and looked at Yi Wei. Her eyes appeared to be entirely absent, and in their place was a great sphere of the void between worlds, burning with a great light deep within, though that eternal void still clearly looked upon her like any other pair of eyes could.

The warping space around her burst out to meet with the tri-coloured energy, causing most of it to be distorted and annihilated in an instant, despite the great difference between Yi Wei’s power and that of a common cultivator. All it took was a single look from the entity born of the connection between Yi Fenwu and the void, and so much of the magnificent energy burst out of existence without so much as touching her body. What little remained ate at the remnants of her clothes and burnt some strands of hair, but her body was completely unmarked and unmarred by the violent energies.

‘Seriously, if not the fact that it has taken all of her cognitive abilities away, I would be decrying how unfair this is. Just touch the void a little bit and now you’re suddenly nigh omnipotent compared to the third realm,’ Yi Wei thought, throwing the planar ice away, ‘That’s not going to help me…’

She glanced to her sides to confirm the damage of that one attack by Yi Fenwu, and found that the void attack had ended the lives of the majority of those in the second realm, leaving behind only those like Yi Meng and Yi Ling, who happened to have been beside the primary jagged lines of attack. However, just as she looked to her right, she saw a familiar shadow.

Yi Bai was, right before her eyes, stabbing the back of yet another member of the expedition.

‘Her too? No, she seems normal, but I’m guessing that the order given out by Yi Fenwu, probably something like ‘Protect me’ or ‘Kill anyone who gets near me with malicious intent’, is still being enforced by her. Even if Yi Bai understands what is currently happening, that stupid assassin’s binding won’t let her do anything!’ she gritted her teeth, ‘These damn assassin organisations are terrible! Damn it!’

“Yi Bai!” she shouted, appearing at the assassin’s side with Storm’s Edge Dash, “Stop that right now! Your actions are endangering your master!”

She ignored her, even when Yi Wei stopped her knife with her bare hands.

“You’ve responded before, so I know you can understand me. I’m affecting your efficiency more when I’m holding onto your knife than if you just spoke to me, right? Do you understand what your master has done?”

Only then did Yi Bai answer, in a voice so quiet it would be subdued by a casual gust of wind, “Master has decided to attempt to combine with the void between worlds via the planar origin stone. I am meant to stop anyone who interrupts her, as every such interruption would lower the chances of success. I am complying perfectly with my commands.”

“Planar origin stone? You mean that rock that’s glowing in her pocket?”

“Yes. Release me,” the assassin said, naturally not having ceased her attempts to escape, though they were easily subdued with the full power of Yi Wei’s physique and body cultivation.

“Not so fast, Yi Bai, I still-” she began, but then saw the glow of the Light of Divinity wane, and the great warping energy floating around Yi Fenwu burst out again. One line of the warp headed straight for them, or more precisely, for Yi Bai. Yi Wei could not allow either herself or the assassin to be harmed, so she released her knife and simultaneously kicked her with as much force she could without harming her, following up with leaping back on her own.

The very next instant, the warping energy sliced across the space between them, as well as the space and bodies of several other expedition members. Amongst those losses was Yi Jiu, whose body was severed horizontally right in front of her.

“No! Yi Fenwu! You’ve prepared something for this, so does that mean you can understand me?” she shouted, quickly following up with a Touch of God to block Yi Bai’s assault on another person.

Her still figure turned around on the spot, now facing Yi Wei in her entirety, but her face remained still, with no sign of any movement having occurred since she began her attempt to connect with the void. It was akin to a mask in its stillness, and it was just as smooth and flawless as a porcelain mask would be.

‘At the very least that woman came prepared, so she wasn’t as reckless as I thought, but it’s clear that it hasn’t worked,’ Yi Wei thought, ‘Even if I exhaust all forms of energy again and somehow manage to defeat her, the time taken will allow her to kill everyone else. However, is there anything I can do to prevent this? None of the forms that my planar energy can take seemed sufficient to tear through the warped space, although that could be due to the Light of Divinity being a water-type technique, rather than a cosmic-type one. What can I-’

Her thoughts were unceremoniously interrupted when the warped space burst out again, faster and with less delay than before. It surged forth in two hundred different lines, with three heading right for her. As they seemed to have no concept of height, it meant that they would kill her wherever she moved, giving her no choice but to confirm her new theory.

‘The two most powerful forms of energy I possess are my physique energy and cosmic energy. The best attack to combine the two…’ she thrust her palm forward, ‘Yang Elysian Palm!’

Unlike the common method of technique usage, where one would solely use their planar energy and circulate it through their meridians to achieve a desired effect, or the method she had discovered after attaining physique energy, where she would substitute certain inconvenient parts of a circulation path with that yang physique energy, she currently channelled both types of energy simultaneously. When a full circulation path was complete in either meridian network, a single instance of the technique would manifest, so when she completed both…

Around one side of her palm, bright white energy condensed within the air, clean and pure. Around the other, luminous flame appeared from nothing. They spun in a circle, in great proximity with one another and yet without contact, like the symbol of yin and yang.

When the warped space came closer, the two finally came together. The light that seemed to come from the heavens and the fires that only the most fearsome of demons could possess united into a perfect force. As if the sun bloomed in front of her, a sphere of endless light burst out of her palm and met with that warped energy, instantly devouring it. The impossible heat completely melted the surface of the world segment, turning all of the sand to molten glass, and then exploded with an even greater light. A dozen of the warped lines were instantly shattered, as if they were nothing but feeble windows.

That light did not stop there, however, and continued to Yi Fenwu, where it tore through the thick line of defensive warp with ease, and scorched her body, affecting her for the first time in this battle.

The very moment that the white and orange light cleared, Yi Wei was already right in front of the woman’s figure, drawing upon the other half of the physique energy that she had not yet used. However, she did not use it immediately, for the same reason that she had not exhausted all of her power on the first serious strike.

Her intention wasn’t to kill, but to get closer.

“Yi Fenwu! That stone of your is still glowing, so it must be doing something, right? Give the assassin’s token to me!” she spoke clearly and not too loudly, as she didn’t want anyone else to learn of the existence of the token Yi Fenwu used to control Yi Bai’s actions, for the same reason that she had previously been very vague about the way in which Yi Bai was controlled. She did not want anyone to get any ideas about controlling her with it, as it would simply be her ownership moving from one person to another. If this was to be a true victory, not only would she have to get every survivor to safety, but also ensure that Yi Bai was free to live her own life.

As always, the archer did not reply, while whatever entity controlled her body focused more on rebuilding the warped space around her.

Would Yi Wei allow her to do that without interruption?

Of course not!

With a simple mental command, Yi Wei’s great quantity of cosmic energy burst out in its pure form, at the densest fluid state that it could achieve without collapsing in the outside world and blocked the warped space from growing. Without the benefit of the physique energy, that effect was weakened, but it was still sufficient to prevent the warp from accumulating, and even slowly lead to its erosion. Due to her realm, she couldn’t extend that energy beyond two metres, but it was enough to engulf her and Yi Fenwu completely.

“You’re not going to respond? Then I’ll just search for it myself!” she said, grabbing for the nearest strip of the woman’s robe that had a pocket within it.

Her hand shot forward, and without any warning, it was stopped by Yi Fenwu, who grabbed onto her arm with even greater speed and stared at her without any expression on her face nor inside of those void-filled eyes.

Surprisingly enough, her grip was incredibly strong, almost matching Yi Wei’s own strength.

For a moment, she waited, expecting some kind of response as a result of that unexpected interaction, but when there was absolutely nothing from the silent archer, she tore her arm out of her grip and instead reached with her other hand, grabbing the first thing she could out of the pocket – a familiar silver ring that matched one of those on Yi Fenwu’s finger.

‘This isn’t what I needed at all. Can I even use it? Regardless it won’t help against the warping space,’ Yi Wei thought, storing it in her own pocket, ‘Time for a second attempt- actually, the whole pocket…’

She jumped to the archer’s side, where she simply released more cosmic energy around herself instead of controlling the cloud that she had already produced and grabbed onto Yi Fenwu’s robes and tore off a large strip, which also contained a pocket within it.

‘I hadn’t considered it, but to an outside observer, it may seem like I am intentionally stripping her…’

Yi Wei forcefully threw that thought out of her mental landscape, and instead reached into that pocket. Within, she found a bunch of random pills, which she had no time to identify and thus stored in her own clothes, a small pebble with no traces of planar energy nor spiritual will, which she discarded after she concluded that she had seem them near the entrance to the Kong Holy Grounds not too long ago, and finally, a black token.

When it touched her skin, it lit up – or, rather, a faint shroud of darkness covered it – and she felt a certain commanding presence covering her.

“Yi Bai, escape immediately!” she shouted, focusing her will on the shrouded assassin.

Mid-way through another stab at someone who was too weak to resist her, Yi Bai stopped and turned towards one of the exits of the world segment, vanishing into a shadow and running straight towards at a speed that was lower only than the time she appeared before Yi Fenwu to shield her.

‘I’ve got it! Then, all I have to do is deal with Yi Fenwu, and then I and everyone who’s left can leave with Yi Bai!’ she smiled, though a quick look around dampened any hint of happiness.

Out of the four dozen, the forty-eight people that had come alongside her into this battle, all that remained were Yi Guanyu and a few people whose names and faces she did not recognise, with the bodies of those who she did know lying on the glassed terrain, all of whom were split in half one way or another.

She saw that the cloud of cosmic energy around the archer was slowly being consumed by the warped reality, and that the warp was clearly about to burst out again, so she stepped forward and circulated her True Ascendant physique energy throughout her meridians.

As she did not want to kill everyone in the area that still survived, she sent that energy to her leg, performing the one leg combat technique she had mastered.

Flame bloomed around her legs and as she kicked the archer, akin to the sun piercing reality itself as it burst from her foot and flew into Yi Fenwu’s stomach, catching onto her body and rapidly spreading across her flesh. The unmistakable scent of burning flesh quickly spread throughout the world segment as her delicate yet tempered skin burnt away.

All of a sudden, when parts of her ribcage began to show through the flames, the void within her eyes vanished for only a brief moment, during which she reached into the glowing pocket, retrieved a rock from it, and placed it right into Yi Wei’s hand. “I… messed up…”

That was the only thing she could say before the void between worlds returned to her eyes, though the void could do little with her, as that brief period of consciousness also significantly weakened her resistance to the yang energy produced by the Violet Kick – a technique based on Lan Mei Xing’s impressive kicking technique – and thus more than half of her body had been reduced to nothing but charred bones, while the rest was close to destruction nonetheless.

Not even the void between worlds could keep her body together, and thus, she fell to the ground.

‘She’s dead… Shit, I killed someone… Just like that… Does that mean that the void will no longer spread as quickly, and that the warped reality will also cease?’

There was no time for her to check, however, as the next second, that great mass of warp suddenly burst out at an intensity a thousand times superior to its previous condition, cutting through the world segment with a thousand individual lines. In perfect silence, Yi Wei felt the very space around herself being sliced apart and heard a number of bodies fall onto the ground.

“Everyone! Follow Yi Bai!” she yelled, following her own commands immediately.

In that one second, she saw that the void between worlds and the strange warp would not diminish upon the death of Yi Fenwu, and she realised that every single second would simply mean more deaths. Since the assassin, Yi Bai, knew where to go, likely based on her and Yi Fenwu’s exploration of the area, it was their best to follow her. In this moment, with her having exposed her cosmic energy and yang physique energy, there was little more to hide, so there was no need for her to make others chase after the Lock Obelisks when she could open the exit door herself.

She took her planar anchor back into her dantian and threw out the majority of her remaining planar energy onto the spot where the warped space was most concentrated in the hopes of weakening it.

With the power of the Storm’s Edge Dash, she caught up to Yi Bai’s distant figure just as she neared a doorway – and did so just in time to see how that doorway was suddenly cracked open by the void, the symbol atop it being consumed at the same time, revealing a familiar grassy hill of the outside.

Yi Bai ran through it, vanishing from the dunes, and Yi Wei followed, leaping out to escape a surge of warp energy.

She twisted in the air and landed on her back, only to see the doorway in the air collapse.

‘W-Wait, what? It… It can’t fall apart this quickly, the people inside… There’s another doorway, there has to be, right?’ she desperately thought, getting onto her feet and returning to the top of the hill, but saw no trace of that initial beating heart of an entrance, nor any traces of other doorways and gateways that would bring people out of the Holy Grounds.

Her vision was strangely red, and her breathing was oddly heavy, albeit she heard it through a fog of adrenaline and exhaustion.

Raising her hand to wipe away that strange flood of red within her sight, she stopped when she saw that her entire arm was covered in small, thin cuts that were slowly leaking blood.

‘Huh? When did this happen? Why am I… what…’ she fell to the ground as she felt the strength in her entire body wane and flow away into some unknown void, perhaps the same one that consumed the Kong Holy Grounds, ‘No, I’ve even brought out everything I had… It can’t just end that way, it can’t… No…’

 

Before she knew it, she had lost consciousness and regained it once again. Her cultivation had not advanced this time, and neither was there any extreme growth within her mental space and cultivation, but there was a great quantity of thoughts floating around her head, manifesting as random scraps of paper and books within the Gilded Library, where her mental self desperately tried to decipher some meaning from these things.

She stood up and found that her body had mostly recovered, and thus looked around for Yi Bai.

Whether with her own perception and sight, or the strange black token, she was unable to find her, so she stored the token away in the deepest, most hidden pocket of her robes, and looked into the distance, into the direction of the Yi District.

Her eyes furrowed, and she decided not to cleanse her body with water. When she appears, there would be questions, and appearing wounded would be to her benefit.