Path of the Ascendant

“.. and that is everything I can currently provide you with. If you want more, then you will need to wait,” said Meng Chu, leaving the last book on the table.

“Since you said that we have a month to prepare, then I will make good use of that time. Give me everything you can about your men and your enemies, no matter how insignificant it might seem. The only thing that matters is that it is true without a shadow of a doubt, or else you will affect the accuracy and effectiveness of my plans.”

“Then I will increase the number of investigators in the field,” he nodded, turning around and departing.

‘Perfect,’ Wei Yi thought to herself, expanding her spiritual will to cover and seep into every book that had been placed around her, ‘With this much information, I can begin working on the plan and my killing intent cultivation technique at the same time, using Endless Calculation for both and refining it as well. Even if I fail to create a plan that will be sufficient to put me into the commanding position, I will still be able to reach a more advanced realm of killing intent within a month of completing the technique, provided that the speed of cultivation matches that of planar cultivation.’

To her left, she also placed a large supply of bottled blood wine and blood water, dried meat and other long-lasting food and drink to fuel her body while she pushed her mind to its limit, albeit without forcing it to slow down due to how much time she has to work with.

To her right lay several piles of killing intent manuals, including those that completed her collection of the fifteen base killing intent techniques, as well as two unique techniques that were called Monarch of Terror and Perpetual Anger, with the first condensing the form of killing intent into a crown that gathers the emotions of those beneath the user and focuses them into killing intent, while the second focused all of the hatred of the user to endlessly revolve and strengthen it.

Both were flawed in their own ways, but neither was as terrible as Magnanimous Leech, making them absolutely brilliant in comparison.

In front of her was the largest pile of books and tomes, listing everything known about body cultivation – or, rather, physique cultivation – physique cultivators and the specific bandits occupying the battlefield where Meng Qi’s remains may be located. It included their appearances, physical and mental features, where they had been seen guarding their encampment and all sorts of other details.

With this, she had all of the information she needed to begin the process of calculation, and so she stored all of the books into the library before opening several of them within the Augur’s Library. The naming of the technique and how it just happened to have the same name as the fifth realm of killing intent cultivation aside, she found it to be more and more comfortable to use with every passing minute, increasing the rate at which she was able to absorb and comprehend information through it and improving the rate at which Endless Calculation was able to function, even without improvements to the technique itself.

As a result, when she had the books open within the library, she was able to read half a dozen at once without any issues, at the exact same pace and speed as just one book, and since her mind functioned at a greater speed than her eyes did in reality, that speed was further amplified.

The first field she decided to study more carefully were the cultivation realms of physique cultivation, as it was relevant both to herself and to understanding the abilities of the bandits from the Great Bone Lake, which could contribute to as much as twenty percent of her potential success. Unfortunately, there were only a few manuals that had any hints about physique cultivation, with no cultivation techniques at all, but there were a number of tomes that described the style of combat that physique cultivators often employ and accurate tales of their battles, so it would suffice for now.

‘Stable Form, guaranteed requirements of a physique, no matter how poor, empty meridians that have not contained any other form of energy for a day prior to cultivation, a body that is… eight times as strong as that of a typical human, or that of the cultivator prior to their physical training,’ she determined from the first few books, ‘Thus, one has to be in the physical equivalent of the seventh or eighth stage of Planar Pool, and each stage of physical cultivation should elevate one’s strength further.’

Physique cultivation appeared to be based primarily on one’s physique – hence why she considered it to be a superior name to body cultivation, since a person could theoretically develop a form of spiritual physique that render their strength almost null but make their physique abilities vastly more powerful – and with each stage and realm, the body and the physique would become stronger, even without refining or purifying the physique to an entirely new level. As a result, it was far more dependent on what one was born with or created at the beginning of their cultivation journey, and if someone acquired a physique that was significantly more powerful than that of another, they would be at an enormous advantage to anyone in an inferior field.

As Wei Yi had the True Ascendant physique, one that had an extreme quantity of yang within it, she had that same advantage, so long as there were no superior physiques hidden within the prison realm.

‘According to the information that I’ve been provided, there are roughly fifteen men and six women amongst their group. One man has a Yang physique, one woman has the Sun’s Regalia physique, but the rest are unknown… Not good enough. With how powerful my physique energy is, even if it is significantly more powerful than any other, I imagine that twenty-one physique cultivators would absolutely destroy anyone who does not have strong bodies, which would be the majority of the killing intent cultivators…’ she thought, willing the tomes that depict them and their battlefield to manifest.

Twenty-one thin books and a dozen larger ones appeared in front of her, and yet she did not even begin the process of Endless Calculation. Then, she opened up more books that related to physique cultivation, and repeated the process.

‘Greater Shape, requirement of a doubled strength, equating second stage of Emergent Anchor or sixteen times that of their original ability… flaws that the cultivator desires to be removed need to be understood and comprehended as to be able to direct the body to remove and amend them… There isn’t enough information for me to understand my exact realm and stage, but I am most certainly not in the second realm, for I lack any knowledge of the flaws that I would like to remove…’

The books containing the information on the twenty-one bandits grew slightly in thickness as she read through that batch of books and grew again with the next.

‘Impermanent Permanence is the last one that I have sufficient detail on, and is also what their leader is supposedly in… if I understand this correctly, it ensures perfect regeneration regardless of wound and duration of injury, meaning that so long as the damage can be healed, it will return to the initial state without any changes. It also requires a good understanding of the whole body, as to be able to return it to the preferred state… Perhaps it is possible to alter the body in this realm, though not too significantly due to the next realm being the one in which you are intended to modify your physical self according to your whims,’ Wei Yi thought, briefly glancing at her hands for no particular reason, ‘Maybe minor changes to things that can be perceived as injuries can be repaired, but nothing more. If I did have a chance to change myself, what would I do?’

She waved away the question, as it was irrelevant to her at present, and returned to finishing the last few books on the topic of physique cultivation. When she did finish them, she moved onto the tomes and manuals describing killing intent, as well as those explaining the abilities of the warriors she would be able to order around.

‘Initial Well, my realm and that of two warriors, Fine Piercing, the realm of five warriors, Condensed Shot, the realm of the last nineteen combatants. Makes sense, seeing as the top leaders are only in the Searing Torch realm,’ she thought, ‘However, this isn’t too fortunate for me, unless I intend to go with this group, as killing intent appears to be weaker than physique cultivation. With decent physiques, the twenty-one bandits will be significantly more powerful than Meng Chu’s troops, even if the latter have access to good hatred blades, emphasis on ‘good’ versus ‘decent’. Furthermore, he described the Great Bone Lake as driving anyone who stays inside of it for too long insane, meaning that killing intent will have even less effect on them…’

On the outside of the Augur’s Library, she created a rough representation of how the fight would progress if the twenty-one went up against the twenty-six in head-to-head combat.

At first, the books that were surrounded in the aura of killing intent had a minor advantage due to their ability to fight at a greater range, but the moment that the physique cultivators closed the gap and unleashed their physique energies, the battle was won, and won without any losses on their side.

Naturally, if this was to occur in reality, it would be a lot more complex and would involve far more tactical decision-making, but the basic outcome would still be similarly in the favour of the physique cultivators. Due to this, she knew that it was an absolute necessity to exclude any plans that involved a direct collision between two forces, and instead depend on clever manoeuvring and stealth to succeed in the battle.

‘This just means that my planning will require more data to go correctly, and I will need several backup plans to execute if the first one fails. Although it might be difficult to arrange in a day or a week, a month will be more than sufficient so long as I can boost the power of my library and Endless Calculation further by strengthening my killing intent…’

She was thrown out of her contemplation while more than a million books floated around her Augur’s Library, flooding the equivalent of the heavens and the earth with brown tones when she heard a knock on the door to the chamber she decided to occupy.

Leaving her mental realm, she turned to face the door just as it opened, revealing Meng Chu on the other side with a pile of books in his hands, and several people behind him with even more reading material. They carried it all into the room, filling the empty corners of the room with all sorts of books from all sorts of places. Some were old, some were new, others were created from all sorts of odd materials and were covered in all sorts of colours, causing the room to resemble a dull rainbow.

Once the servants left, Wei Yi asked, “How long has it been so far?”

“One day. This is everything that can be gathered within the city, so I recommend that you scan through it quickly before your spiritual will-”

“Since we’re going to be working together no matter what happens, let me remind you that my spiritual will is not going to disappear without an extreme circumstance forcing the last remnants of my planar energy to vanish, so stop assuming that it will vanish at any moment… And no, I will not be able to pass that on to you. It is quite literally a unique ability.”

“Is there no possibility whatsoever of passing on any aspect of that principle?”

“No, because it is not a technique nor a physique that I can induce in anyone. Furthermore, I am certain that if you kill me, you will not be able to take it from me,” Wei Yi said, ‘That is nonsense, actually, but I have no reason to suggest any possibility of the nascent portal being transferrable.’

Given that she had only been able to perceive that nascent rift due to some uniqueness of her own when Chu Ling couldn’t even approach the Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus with her spiritual will, there might be even more validity to her words. Perhaps that same uniqueness was necessary to gain the opening bestowed by the miracle fruit, and since she hadn’t fully confirmed the reason for that particular ability, she could not guarantee that anyone other than herself had it.

“Very well, I will accept that. How is your progress so far?”

“I have established a basic model of the battlefield, both sides and a number of theoretical obstacles that both might encounter. I have also begun work on a technique for myself, which I will put to use if I determine that it is impossible for your men to win, which, frankly, is the case in a direct confrontation. So far, there seems to be a 1.4% chance of victory through subterfuge, but that is only because I lack enough data to accurately predict the outcome of such a battle. I suspect that the true value is closer to 10.8% percent, give or take a tenth or hundredth.”

“That does not sound very good, and much worse than I anticipated. Is there something that you may be misinterpreting?”

“We’ll know that after I read your additional material, but that should not be the case. After all, physical cultivators are superior in strength to killing intent cultivators, are resistant to the latter’s mental attacks and can endure their physical attacks vastly better than the average killing intent cultivator. To defeat them smoothly and without casualty, as would be most efficient, every kill must be smooth and fast, catching as many off-guard prior to overwhelming any that remain.”

“Indeed, that is the case… How would your presence affect these chances?”

“Unless something unexpected occurs, it ought to bring things up to 52.7% at most, though I expect that I will have to adjust that value after gaining further insights into the situation. After all, I am currently viewing the worst-case scenario, which will only be improved as faults within their defences can be found.”

“As expected of a crimson robe wearer with twin meridian networks, I suppose. My presence does not assist your planning and contemplation, does it?”

“Nope. However, I might need to book Ah Li at some point, as this ought to help my mind calm down after the excessive stress I’m applying to it. If you could see my mental landscape right now, I’m pretty sure you would experience a significant degree of mental pain.”

“Noted. I’ll leave, then.”

When he left, Wei Yi reached out with her spiritual will again, scanning every single book into her mind within a few minutes before going through them inside of her mental landscape. With the incredible quantity of information there, it took her a long time to do so, but the instant that she located a few more cultivation techniques for killing intent and one that resembled some haphazard attempt to create a physique cultivation technique, she got through them all quickly.

The killing intent techniques were high in number, but unfortunately nameless. There were a number of effects, concepts and ideas within, but what mattered the most was that every possible combination of elements, energy quantity and purity and a number of other factors were included, allowing her to create a basic foundation for a personal technique within minutes after comprehending the last killing intent technique in the pile. From there, the key would be to establish her own model for the killing intent, much like she had done with the Gilded and Augur’s Libraries and put all of the differing concepts and ideas together into something functional and powerful.

On the other hand, to compose a physical cultivation method from the pathetic scraps that the creator dared to call ‘filled with potential’ would be identical to trying to challenge the heavens.

It wasn’t just bad, but absolutely terrible, for it lacked even the simplest understanding of both language and physique energy. Perhaps the only benefit from it was the fact that it contained a few more insights on physique energy cultivation than the rest of the books, hidden amongst dozens of falsehoods and endless nonsense.

There were a few things she could invest into a proper technique, but nothing truly significant that she could use as a similar foundation to the killing intent she was already creating. As a result, that book was torn into little pieces, the significant ones were placed aside while the rest were burned.

‘Now, to return to the matter of the plan. Let’s see… full profiles of all of the men and women that will be brought to this mission, various details and rumours regarding the opposition, full maps of the battlefield and how they have changed from the first battle to their current state, which should allow me to understand the geographical situation there with a little more clarity, crimson storm weather conditions, hatred automaton hunting patterns, instances of weaker or superior killing intent fields within the wild, several theses on the topic of miracle fluid and where it naturally appears, details on the creation and maintenance of hatred blades and defensive equipment, how killing intent reacts to physique energy and vice versa… Excellent. This is all exactly what I needed…’

One by one, the books were placed into the mental library, filling it with far greater speed than Wei Yi had originally expected, and the number of the tomes floating around it also multiplied with every relevant book. The millions grew and grew until they reached into the billions, the sheer quantity of ideas, possibilities and theories straining her mind to the point of causing audible cracking and creaking from the Augur’s Library.

She took a moment to pool one of the killing intent books into the walls and pillars of the library before opening one of her newly gained books to find something – anything – that could contradict anything about the endless tide of theoretical and potential outcomes.

Luckily, she found exactly that, and a great swath of floating books vanished into nothingness.

‘If I do something on this same scale again, I must make sure to get rid of extraneous theories before they start to fill my mind beyond what is necessary,’ Wei Yi said to herself, ‘My mind is certainly capable of holding quite the number of things, but without some sort of additional mental cultivation technique to strengthen it, I cannot exert it to such an enormous extent. Furthermore, doing something like that is simply inefficient, as the entire point of the Endless Calculation technique is meant to discard the things that cannot happen and narrow things down to that which can happen… Speaking of that, plotting out the entire engagement is also unnecessary. I must instead conclude what start to the engagement would be the smoothest and most efficient, then figure out how to progress from there. Naturally, that will cut down on the quantity of tomes…’

With a wave of her mental hand, the thickness of every single floating tome was halved and a number of books that were irrelevant to her current intention were removed immediately. With those that remained, she ran through every single one of them and examined what could happen if she did give these orders to those under her command. Even when her brain accelerated to deal with the matter a little more efficiently, she could still see how time passed around her, with things both inside and outside of her changing.

She consumed a portion of the food by her side before she finally completed the process and eliminated a great quantity of tactics that could not possibly function no matter how things turned out.

That further narrowed down her selection of tactical books, so she willed the next segment of them to reform once more before repeating the process. Every time she did so, the number of books was reduced significantly, but the thickness of each one grew, with the feasibility of them growing alongside it.