V1C52: Beginning of the End

Yi Shangqing had been a guard of the Yi family for over thirteen years now, and he believed his choice to do so rather than following his initial dreams of adventure was the right choice. At first, standing outside of the entrance of the district and watching out for weak planar beasts was nowhere near as exciting as the things that his former companions went on to do, but every time that group of former friends went in and out of the city, he saw their numbers drop.

In just a few years, a group of over fifty rising stars of the family had dropped to two, one of whom joined the guards while the other went missing not too long ago.

After five years of faithful service, he learnt that guards were also responsible for handling outgoing expeditions of the younger generations, whether he was responsible for receiving them when they returned or going out to search for them if they had sent out a distress signal. It added a little excitement to his job, and it gave him the opportunity to practise his many skills gained from service.

This time, almost two years ago, he had been told about the latest expedition to what was believed to be the former Kong District, and was provided a way to track the life signal of the elder that followed that expedition, as well as being informed about the most important people there.

Out of everyone there, he was told to prioritise Yi Tai, Yi Guanyu and Yi Fenwu. In fact, the one with the most priority was Yi Fenwu, and he was told that if he let her die under his watch, then he and his entire circle of friends, his family, his acquaintances and anyone who he ever fancied would suffer the same fate as she did, and he had no choice but to believe them. The person who made the threats was credible, and well known for caring far too much for his daughter, to the point that rumours like him stealing a chunk of the immortal gold decorating the Ancestral Hall came to be.

For the past two years, everything had been fine. The elder’s life signal was intact, and he could relax.

Then, it faded, though Yi Shangqing was clear that this did not mean his death, but that it was impossible to tell whether he was alive or dead due to him being in a different world or dimension.

Only two days later, he saw the life signal flame flicker into being once more, and just as he assumed that the elder had exited the hidden grounds he had been searching for safely, the small flame dispersed into nothingness.

As a result, he rushed directly to the people above him and reported the situation in as much detail as he could.

That was why, eleven days later, he was trudging through the forest on the same path that the expedition should have taken, alongside most of his team, to find any trace of the expedition and learn what happened to them and why, as well as to retrieve any and all survivors and bring them safely to the Yi District, so that they may report what happened to the Ancestral Hall.

Thankfully, he was in the peak of the third realm already, and so few of the creatures in his path could force him to fight them seriously. He was able to advance at a decent speed as a result.

‘I wonder what happened to them,’ he asked himself, his mind struggling to imagine anything that could defeat an expert in the Active Core realm within two days, especially due to Yi Dong’s, the elder’s, incredible ability to escape almost any situation, including the time that he was falsely accused of stealing something from the Patriarch and was able to evade capture for over fifty days of constant searching until his innocence was proven and the actual perpetrator was caught. For something to be able to catch him and kill him, the threat must have been incredible.

All of a sudden, he heard something from the depths of the forest in front of him, and stopped, preparing a combat technique and a defensive technique, to deal with whatever threat he was about to face appropriately.

However, he dispersed both techniques when he caught the familiar shade of red coming out of the bushes and trees, mixed in amongst a great quantity of blood-red.

“It’s a survivor of the expedition!” he exclaimed, “Yi Hongling, report it to the family immediately!”

That subordinate of his followed his orders immediately, while the rest gathered around this survivor. When they emerged from the forest’s depths, they saw that this person was actually a woman, with long crimson hair and silver eyes that looked strangely dim, as if her energy had been sapped by something.

Looking at the rest of her body, it was not too surprising to most of the guards. Her robes were torn and cut in countless places, and each tear and cut exposed a wound that had dyed the surrounding cloth and skin in a deep red.

By the looks of it, this woman had been on the edge of death.

‘However, it may just be someone in the same clothes. How can I… ah!’ Yi Shangqing figured out a solution and called out, “You, take out the family’s token!”

The woman did so, displaying a token that almost resembled a large bloodstone in appearance.

‘The Yi guards… finally…’ Yi Wei recognised the people in front of her, breathing an internal sigh of relief. Her mind was still crowded with endless books and scraps of paper that whirled around without any sign of stopping. She had hoped to deal with them somewhat by the time she got to the Yi District, but she had not only failed to do so, the number of the wild thoughts had only grown greatly, slowing down her thoughts somewhat. Whenever she wanted to bring up any one of her ideas or thoughts from the past, she had to look at them through a storm of nonsense that she had no answer to.

“What’s your name and what role did you have in the expedition?” the man that found her, a large man with a broad waist and a thick brown beard, asked.

“I am… Yi Wei, and… I was in Yi Jiazhi’s group… as a servant…” she responded, playing up her fatigue.

“Yi Jiazhi? What happened to them, and what happened to everyone else?”

“They’re dead… they all died, including Yi Jiazhi, Yi Henghua, Yi Tai, Yi Fenwu, Yi Guanyu and Yi Zheng… the entire hidden ground collapsed, and the void between worlds claimed everyone… I just barely escaped…” Yi Wei said, tears flowing out uncontrollably.

The man’s eyes widened, “All? All of them? Are you sure? Are you absolutely certain?”

“I can guarantee the deaths of all but four or five people… I’ve personally seen the rest fall.”

“No! Oh, no… no, no, no… Yi Chen and you two, bring her to the district. I must report this immediately!” he shouted, turning around and quickly vanishing into the distance.

Apart from the three that he left behind to look after Yi Wei, the other proceeded onwards, heading in the direction of the Kong valley. With their speed and Yi Wei’s blood trail for them to follow, they would be able to make it there by the end of the day, or in roughly eleven hours, by which point, even if there had been any survivors within the hidden grounds, the void would have consumed them.

Meanwhile, Yi Chen used a strange movement technique that surrounded all four of them and allowed them to move at a far quicker pace. The other three didn’t even need to move their legs.

‘I might as well store this in the library as well, but…’ as the book, containing everything she could gather regarding that movement technique, was placed into the library, the seemingly eternal storm of thoughts still obscured her mental vision.

She allowed herself to rest, though the feeling of dread she had been feeling since the Kong Holy Grounds had still not faded.

“- so, while we sort things out, you should go to your residence and clean yourself up. Here, take a gold coin – spend it wherever you like, though I recommend the Nine Suns Bathhouse in the northern part of the district. It has absolutely great service and water, and with this, you should be able to get every one of the services they offer, including a massage, haircut and whatever else you may want,” Yi Chen said, giving her an extremely shiny coin.

“Thanks… are you employed by them?”

“N-No, I don’t know why you would imply such a thing. You know what, take another silver coin and buy yourself a snack from the Sweet Fragrance Stall near the bathhouse.”

“… I’ll do that…” she agreed, taking the money from him before separating from the group.

She did not go straight for the places she was recommended, instead allowing her instincts to guide her while she continued her contemplation.

‘I’ve been doing this far too much lately, but I need to do it nonetheless. I have to examine the situation in the Kong Holy Grounds, and the event that killed everyone, save for me and Yi Bai, who has gone off to wherever it is she considers to be a suitably safe place to escape to… I can already see my first mistake, in that I failed to specify a specific location, and that I didn’t free her mind. Perhaps it will naturally wear off and allow her to act normally until someone else gets one of these tokens, or perhaps she will hide out somewhere getting the bare necessities to allow herself to stay in shape while waiting for further commands…’ she thought, looking up only enough to see the feet of those she was near as to avoid bumping into them by accident, ‘The second mistake is that I obviously should have kept the warp in check before it got out of control and grew too powerful by subduing it with my planar energy, which should have reduced the likelihood of the current outcome by… some number of percent. My head is too busy to concentrate on the exact numbers…’

Yi Wei groaned, attracting even more attention than her current blood-covered appearance did.

‘I should have spoken to Fen Zhi more, in order to get as much information as possible about assassins and assassin’s bindings, which might have allowed me to cut the link between Yi Bai and this damned token, preventing Yi Fenwu from escaping as easily and limiting the possibility of her connecting to the void via the planar origin stone… On that topic, the Aeon of the Endless Dark…’ her mental self reached for the technique and flipped open the manual, ‘Might as well cultivate this fully. The ability to hide my abilities exactly as I want it to be, allowing me to prevent a number of faults within my future endeavours.’

That process was completed quickly, though it did not feel satisfying, as a number of her previous accomplishments were.

‘Honestly, I had never given much thought to the so-called heart demons that the Daoists are fond of talking about, but this could easily qualify. It shouldn’t stop me from advancing in my cultivation, but I won’t be at my peak capacity until I figure this stuff out… Damn…’

She raised her head and found that she had accidentally wandered onto the road that lead to her old home, the one that she had occupied before moving to the Xiao Mountain Residence with Yi Yaling shortly prior to the expedition. ‘This was unexpected, but I suppose it wouldn’t be harmful to see what my house looks like nowadays. It would be a shame if someone had torn it down in my absence…’

In the distance, in the same direction as her home was, were a few plumes of smoke rising into the sky, backlit by the setting sun.

Her journey was far quicker than she had anticipated. While she was preoccupied with her own thoughts and considerations, her body automatically drew upon the knowledge of movement techniques engrained within her mental and physical states.

As she drew closer, she realised that the smoke was not as small or insignificant as she had originally thought, nor as near as she had hopes, for the direction of one particular tower of smoke was not just near to the direction of her home, but exactly on it. She willingly sped up at that point, as she did not want to allow her home to burn without interfering in it, whatever the reason for the fire was.

Just a few minutes later, she entered her street, and her fears were confirmed.

Her home, that dirty, rotting shack that wouldn’t be suitable for the vast majority of common folk, was aflame, as were many of the surrounding houses.

Due to that, one might assume that the flame had started in a random house and then spread to the rest, but Yi Wei was not some random, uninformed person, and her home was not in close proximity to the other houses.

Perhaps the only benefit that her shack had to the rest of the terrible buildings around it was the strangely spacious yard around it. In order for a flame to spread to the rest of the houses in the street, or for a fire on the street to spread to her residence, someone would have needed to intentionally light her domain on fire.

She did not have the time to consider the possible perpetrators when she felt a faint thread of spiritual will force itself into her head.

“Child of Yi, it would be in thine best interests to not approach thine home. Go to our grove instead, for I fear that thou art in mortal danger,” Chu Ling’s voice sounded in her head, with a great quantity of worry in her voice, “Also, we have much to speak about.”

After a moment of consideration, she decided to follow her instructions. She pretended not to have heard anything and found a passer-by, whom she questioned about the fire as a concerned citizen.

That person was rather shocked about such a blood-covered individual approaching him, but he responded nonetheless and quickly lost interest after she said that she would return with a water cultivator in order to quell the fire, and didn’t pay attention to her when she turned the corner and disguised her cultivation, before using a parallel street to head towards the Timeless Grove, which she entered only when she was sure that no-one was watching, and even then she only dared to near it once she had applied every single stealth skill that she possessed.

It was only when she saw the familiar, busty figure covered in green and leaves that she relaxed.

“Oh my, thou art in quite a state. Would thee object to me assisting thee in cleaning thyself?” the woman asked.

“No, I wouldn’t.”

“Then proceed to thine left, through the trees. A clean pond is waiting for thee there, and a set of the same items I had given thee once thou had departed on thine expedition. I’d say more, but I’m afraid our circumstances would not allow for such a thing,” Chu Ling said, opening the pathway on the left with a casual wave of her hand.

Yi Wei said nothing, following the woman’s instructions and leaping into the warm water of a small, clear pond, which quickly washed away the dried blood and revealed her clean, unmarred body within the water.

All of the wounds, even those caused by the warp, had healed long ago, and with the dirt and blood gone, anyone who looked upon her now and did not mind her nudity would have been able to reasonably assume that she had never encountered combat, and had achieved her present physical state through pure training… not that the assumption would be entirely inaccurate, seeing as she did not receive much benefit to her body through fighting.

Speaking of her body, it had most certainly changed from the time when she was thin and dainty, mostly due to the lack of proper nutrition.

She was still thin, of course, as she had never eaten enough to put on any more weight than was strictly necessary for her development, most of the nutrition for which came from planar energy rather than food, but around her bones there was a thick layer of strong muscle that was only a single step away from bursting out of her skin.

While beneath clothing, that physical strength could easily remain hidden, but not outside of it.

As her bodily development lead to the natural growth of the muscles in her legs, her lower body could easily be said to be aesthetically pleasing and fitting the ideas of many regarding a good-looking woman, though her upper half had not benefitted from the same development.

In other words, her breasts could only be described as one step above flat, and with her reaching her age of maturity, they would not grow much in the future.

‘It’s funny that there was a time that I was concerned with this more than… the rest of the things…’ Yi Wei thought, glancing at the mental storm in her head, ‘I suppose I could always cultivate the Bovine Stomach- oh, wait, a lower-grade body cultivation ability will not override a greater technique, especially not when that technique is the basis for a physique. Unless I can add it into the Condensed Arts Body, I’m not going to be able to grow my boobs… I could ask Chu Ling about it, but both of us know that there are better things to consider.’

She sighed, shrouded herself in a small cloud of smoke-like planar energy and cleansed herself by transforming it into water-type energy. Once she was clean, she examined the various creams and cosmetics left by Chu Ling, and found that most were similar to what she had previously received, except for the fact that all had been improved to a two-star level, and a few that had been improved in a less general and more specific sense.

They were prepared in a similar quantity to before, but now that she knew about some sort of danger that the woman in green herself, a person in the fifth realm if not higher by now, needed to inform her about, Yi Wei had an ever so slight suspicion that she would not be able to make use of it all before that threat forced her away from it. As a result, she gave it some thought, simultaneously taking the opportunity to allow herself to relax for a little longer, she grabbed every single one of the items and began to applying them one by one, flooding every single one of them with the purest form of cosmic energy.

The instant that any one of the cosmetics touched the place that they were meant to affect, they melted into her body and began to perform its function.

Although the sensation was slightly unpleasant, it was nothing compared to any one of the things that she withstood both before and during the Kong expedition, and so she was able to keep her hands steady while she did so.

‘My method of rushed application will decrease the overall effect by around eight percent, but since my cosmic energy simultaneously multiplies that percentage by a great degree, that should cancel out and possibly even give me a far greater effect than intended, in a shorter time. In combination with my physique and body cultivation skills… physique cultivation skills?... it might make my skin even more difficult to pierce,’ she idly thought, freezing mid-thought once she realised that she had spent a precious moment of mental clarity on something so unnecessary as her personal appearance.

With the experience that she had in applying these cosmetics, she only needed a few minutes to finish, by which point her body had naturally dried.

She clothed herself and returned through the woods.

“Thou hath already decided to reveal thine secrets?” Chu Ling asked the moment she returned.

“Indeed. I have an ability to absorb medicines at an immense pace and get all of their latent effects. I apologise for failing to inform you ahead of time,” Yi Wei quickly said, bowing respectfully while keeping her face still.

“There is no need for that, Ah Wei. I hath no intentions to steal thine secrets from thee, but I had learnt that thou art capable of changing thine cultivated element with ease, albeit without informing any other person or entity,” the woman in green replied, causing Yi Wei to stop mid-bow, “I knoweth not whether thine ability is the reason for the present danger, but I wish to safeguard thee from it, regardless of the cause.”

“I… I hope you won’t mind it if I ask you how you learnt about this ability? Who did you speak to, and what sort of things did they reveal?”

“I shall not object, for thine requests are perfectly respectable. When thou had left for thine expedition, I decided to investigate thee as to learn about thine place in the Yi family, and what else thou hath done in this district. While searching for thine name, I found one man named Yi Yi, another called Luo Xiuying, a woman by the name of Ning Guanting, and curious words regarding Da Gang, who seemed to appear just after Yi Wei had disappeared… If thou art of the opinion that I hath gone beyond my station as thine teacher, I shalt apologise to thee, but-”

“The fact that you brought this up means that it is important to the threat I am facing, right? Could you explain that to me, beyond just the fact that some arsonist burnt my house down?” Yi Wei asked, folding her arms.

“Indeed. Not too long ago, thine name began to be uttered by those other than me. I had assumed it to be something related to thine family, but the more that I heard about this, the stranger it seemed. Due to our relationship never having been made public, those people never came to me, but now that thine home is in the state that it is, I am certain that they hath malicious intent. Thine residence, although burnt, was first searched. Since thee hath left thine home empty, they found little, but I am confident that they did not do so out of mere curiosity. Their first inquiries were simple, but when they had learnt that thine cultivation had advanced and that thou art the model of a diligent learner in thine technique hall, the nature of the investigation changed, and their tones became a little more… aggressive. Not long after, thine home was searched and burnt…”

“That is rather concerning…” Yi Wei agreed, “Who were these people?”

“Two young people, one man and one woman that are no older than you. Their cultivation is in the third realm, much like thine shalt be in time, but something is strange about it. I lack the knowledge to explain to thee the core of that difference, but it is one that makes their aura incredibly concerning.”

‘Concerning? That’s pretty much the vaguest thing you can say,’ she thought, “So, you can’t help me with them, whatever the concerning factor is?”

“I cannot face them directly, if that is what thou wish from me, but I can protect thee within my grove. Remember, so long as the Timeless Grove stands tall within Yi City, I shalt watch over thee,” Chu Ling said, before showing a small smile, “Can thine ability truly permit thee to absorb medicines more rapidly?”

“You were watching over me in the forest, right? I wouldn’t have wasted all of them otherwise.”

“That is fascinating, and I wish I had the time to study it. Instead, I hath to hurry, just in the case of them coming after thee. Please, come with me, child of Yi.”

She stood up from the branch she had used as her seat, with the branch receding into the forest as if it had never been used as a chair in the first place, and led her into the depths of the grove, through a strange and winding path that seemed to overlap onto itself and other segments of the grove without any clear reason for doing so, whilst simultaneously encountering none of those segments, as if it existed on an entirely different world to the rest of the woods.

“Art thou wondering how we hath walked for so long, yet have not found any trace of our destination?”

“I am somewhat curious, yes.”

“The Timeless Grove is not quite as it appears, as I might have told thee in the past. Due to a series of natural arrays constructed through the trees and the decorations within, I hath achieved a certain warping and locking of space. If we doth not travel through the correct path, we shalt never reach our destination, and thus we shalt follow this specific route,” Chu Ling said.

“Very impressive, though in comparison to a small realm that warps space in its entirety, it isn’t quite as striking. I know it isn’t really a fair comparison.”

“Nay, it is not, but thou art correct. Pray tell, art thou in the possession of that realm?”

“Eh… Not quite. It collapsed onto almost everyone who was inside it when one of the leaders of the expedition invoked the void between worlds when she failed to kill everyone outside of her team, which was previously exposed when I tried to kill that same leader when I first learned about her plans.”

“Were thee familiar with those on the expedition?”

“You could say that…”

“Then I can understand thine sullen look that thou hath displayed since thee hath entered my grove. Last time, didst thou not enjoy resting upon my thighs? Wouldst thou wish for a repeat of that scenario? While we art present within the Timeless Grove, within the focus of my power, we art not at risk, no matter what we do nor how long we take.”

Yi Wei glanced up at her and, after a pause, shook her head, “Even then, I wouldn’t want to waste time. If there’s one thing I can take away from my latest experiences, it’s that every second can be precious.”

“In that case, I shalt not force thee. We art near our destination, so permit me a moment of focus.”

The woman in green shut her eyes for a brief time, seemingly listening out for something in the distance, and then turned in a random direction and continued walking.

For several minutes, there seemed to be nothing unique within the route that they had taken, with every tree moving out of the way when they got close to them and closing back up behind them, but then the air suddenly began to grow heavier, and a slight violet light filled their vision. Out of curiosity, Yi Wei extended some of her spiritual will to inspect that light and found that it was due to an incredibly concentrated and pure cloud of planar energy, although it still remained within its gaseous form.

In comparison to her own cosmic energy, it was almost as pure, though it was slightly less powerful and notably less curious than her planar energy was, without any obvious visuals of portals into the outer void nor the ability to transform into other elements.

“Dost thou recall the miracle fruit, nay, miracle food that I had mentioned before the expedition?”

“I recall something about a Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus. Is that it?” she asked, not because she was not certain about it, but because the mental book containing that information was rather difficult to read due to the endless mental storm that had yet to calm itself to any notable extent, “Have you made some progress with investigating it?”

“That is indeed the case. The denseness of the planar energy in the area is due to it.”

When the next series of trees in front of them opened up, Yi Wei saw a wondrous scene. Within a small clearing, only a few metres in diameter, atop a tree stump, lay a violet lotus that constantly emanated a dense violet light.

“Child of Yi, I doth not exaggerate when I tell thee that this might be the most powerful item I hath ever laid my eyes upon. This lotus contains endless planar energy, even while it constantly emits it.”

‘I am still inclined to consider this an exaggeration…’ Yi Wei thought silently, carefully reaching out with a strand of spiritual will to confirm whether the woman in green was speaking the truth. The instant that it touched the flower, she found her senses becoming overwhelmed as a single image flooded her head.

A great violet portal within the void, through which the astral sky shone through.

Endless planar energy stormed through it, flooding its surroundings – a great set of stone pieces that encircled the rift, glowing with strange symbols, connected to one another with chains of purple lightning, and perhaps even forming that very rift. In itself, it was rather astounding, but it also contained a far deeper concept within, far more than anything the world itself could handle.

It was much like the depths of the Dao, but unlike the things she had already gathered on that topic, what she saw before her was a million times more complex.

She had just enough time to memorise the vision via the Gilded Library, within which the mental storm happened to be concentrated on another spot for a while, before it vanished from her sight and threw her back into the grove, where she felt her spiritual will forcefully recede into her body.

“Truly a difficult thing to approach, no?” Chu Ling said, “One’s spiritual will is instantly sent back…”

‘Even she can’t approach it? Neither my characters nor anything else is reacting to it, though…’ Yi Wei thought, while idly nodding, “Yeah.”

“I hath hoped to make a greater degree of progress on my investigation, but this object is somewhat beyond my perception. However, I had confirmed that thine life would not be at risk as a result of direct consumption, nor will you suffer from any negative effects, although the positive ones are just as unclear,” the woman in green explained, leading her to the lotus flower, “Nonetheless, I am certain that thou hath noticed the way in which I spoke regarding this object.”

“The fact that you have been talking about my safety as a result of consumption… you want to give it to me?”

“Thou art in danger now, and I wish to give thee some greater opportunity to survive it. Additionally, thanks to thine talents and the ability of thine cultivation to switch freely, I believe thee to be the best student that I hath had, and the best person to pass my knowledge onto as my eventual successor.”

She put her hand above the purple lotus and whispered a series of incantations, before kneeling down and gently lifting the lotus flower from the tree stump.

“If thou wouldst accept my offering, please take this and consume it.”

Yi Wei looked her up and down, then stared at the lotus for a little longer, “… I don’t mean to ruin the moment, but how am I meant to consume this thing? Should I bite off the individual petals, eat it in one go, or… Is it even meant to be eaten raw?”

“Ah, I had failed to consider such a simple point. I apologise, child of Yi,” Chu Ling lightly bowed whilst keeping the lotus flower level, then straightened her back and explained, “The Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus is to be consumed whole for the greatest effect. Place it in thine mouth and swallow it, without chewing nor without letting it sit there for too long, lest thine saliva begin to melt in thine mouth. Despite the immense power within, the lotus seems to be rather fragile, and thus thou shouldst not interact with it carelessly.”

“Right, okay, I can do that. There is no chance of violent death or anything of the sort, right?”

“None at all, Ah Wei.”

“Alright then, I’ll eat it,” Yi Wei shrugged, stretching out both hands to receive the lotus with as much care as she could manage.

As the Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus was placed into her hands, she felt that it was both light and heavy at the same time. In terms of physical mass, it was as light as a feather, perhaps even lighter, depending on the bird that produced it, but the planar energy around it amplified that mass by a hundred times. In combination with the constantly surging energy from within, it was a precarious thing to hold.

On the other hand, it was just large enough to fit onto her tongue and snuggly within her mouth once she shut it, sealing the lotus flower within. Remembering Chu Ling’s advice, she ignored the tickling of the petals and swallowed the flower whole.

It descended down her gullet with surprising ease, though she felt it begin to melt slightly as it entered her stomach, at which point she enveloped it with cosmic energy.

At that moment, the entire lotus dissolved within her, the very touch of the pure, crystalline cosmic energy corroding its entire structure, and releasing the pure energy within. That energy took the form of a small oval of planar energy, which then sunk slowly into her dantian, unphased by the obstacles of flesh in between it and its destination. When it touched the planar aperture’s walls, the walls trembled, and the planar oval accelerated.

It touched her nascent planar anchor and burst into it.

For a moment, there was nothing, no obvious reaction nor any clear change, but then the purple gathering of planar energy awakened, causing the same purple fog that had been present around the lotus whilst it was on the outside to appear within her, though it quickly changed to resemble the same cosmic sky that the gaseous form of cosmic energy displayed.

With that mist filling her dantian fully, her overall quantity of planar energy grew by one percent, but the biggest change was to the planar anchor itself.

Although it had previously radiated energy, with all five sides glowing brightly with their own forms of the five elements, the small portal-like clump of planar energy within the anchor gave it a certain brightness and vibrance, empowering each side with its own unique light.

“Dost thou feel any different? Thine body is shrouded by one of thine skills, thus making thine state difficult to assess.”

“I have a little more planar energy capacity, and my nascent planar anchor seems to be slightly different, somehow, but I can’t figure out any other changes, nor anything that would make this item particularly unique among planar… miracle foods, you said?”

“This is a label I had come up with when the term of miracle fruit and planar fruit appeared to be unsuitable. However, the lacking effects are odd when they are compared to the immense power displayed by the Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus prior to ingestion…”  Chu Ling frowned, “If thou wouldst not object, couldst thee sit down on the tree stump that had been occupied by the lotus? I would like to test a few theories with thee.”

Yi Wei shrugged and sat down, though she doubted that the woman in green would be able to figure out something that she, the only person with the full ability to view every part of her body, couldn’t.

For a few minutes, Chu Ling commanded the trees to arrange some sort of array around her, and then stepped back from her as she activated them with a wave of her hand. A translucent field formed around Yi Wei, and she felt the planar energy around her rapidly being drained.

“As the Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus is able to generate planar energy, mayhap it shalt do the same after having been absorbed by thine body. Couldst thee attempt to confirm my hypothesis?” Chu Ling proposed, “If not, I shalt free thee immediately.”

Yi Wei shrugged and threw out a sizeable quantity of planar energy to create an opening within her dantian, though she made sure not to release so much that, if she was suddenly put in danger out of nowhere, she would be unable to protect herself. As that cloud of planar energy was sucked away by the array, she carefully watched her planar aperture for any sign of natural regeneration.

‘I can’t see anything of the sort-’ she stopped herself when the rift deep within the anchor suddenly ignited.

Out of it, pure cosmic energy flowed out, slowly but without ceasing.

Slowly but surely, the lost planar energy was recovered, with it taking around four minutes for one percent of her energy to return – in other words, it would take her four hundred minutes to recover the entire pool of planar energy, or a little over six and a half hours.

“It’s working!” Yi Wei exclaimed, standing up, “You can remove the array now, the effect of the lotus is allowing me to recover energy without needing to absorb it!”

“Understood,” she nodded, making the trees return to their original positions with a thought.

The dome that sealed away the surrounding planar energy vanished, allowing it to rapidly flow into Yi Wei’s body and supplement the small right within her planar aperture in restoring her energy to full in a single minute.

“So, we hath discovered one function of this item. Albeit minor in comparison with immediate improvement in thine cultivation or thine physique, as certain other miracle fruits might grant thee, I believe that this ought to grant thee a lot more breathing room in more difficult encounters,” Chu Ling said, “Although, if the regeneration occurs at a lacking speed, it will only contribute if thou art in a place with no planar energy within the atmosphere.”

“Unfortunately, it is rather slow, though as with physiques and cultivation, there should be some method of accelerating the recovery rate. I’ll have to investigate it later,” Yi Wei did not mention the second half of the sentence, which was, ‘Once the mental storm clears up, of course.’

“Thine thinking is on point. I shalt invest some time into my own research, and I hope to present thee with something within the week. For now, I shalt allow thee to dictate thine path.”

“Are you trying to tell me to do what I’d like?”

“Ah, yes, indeed, that was my intention. I hath lived for quite some time, so my language doth not equate to thine own.”

“I see… According to my knowledge, language has been static for quite some time, so…”

“If thou art referring to my visage, then thou wouldst be easily mistaken in regard to my age. You see, while this grove was young, my body was also young, but as it matured, so did my physique. The Codex of Nature cannot quite surpass the limitation of my lifeforce, but so long as the Timeless Grove stands, so shalt my body remain at the peak of its own growth, much like the trees.”

“Oh, I see… I’d love to stay for a little longer, but I want to make sure that my other acquaintances are alright. I’ll come back before the end of today, or as early in the next day’s morning as I can.”

“Very well. Let me lead thee out, even if the path is simple enough. Come, child of Yi.”

The woman in green headed forward, and Yi Wei followed, and quickly confirmed that the path was indeed simple, as they had to make no turns throughout their entire journey whatsoever. She suspected that the arrays that made their walk towards the Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus so complicated only functioned in a single direction, and that if they had, at any time, gone off the right path, they could have easily returned to the exit of the Timeless Grove.

“I shalt see thee later, child of Yi. Whatever thine fate and path is in the future; I wish thee luck and great fortune.”