V2C55: How to form Alliances

The moment that she touched the door, all four ambassadors shifted their attention towards it, with some doing so more obviously than others.

“Hello, everyone. I’ve kept you waiting, haven’t I?”

“You?” the noble Shufen Bai Shu understood her meaning immediately, turning to her properly and looking over her carefully, as if Wei Yi had been a sculpture presented to her in order to appease her anger but did not appear to match her expectations, “I was told that you were a large, undisciplined brute that split the moon with her fist when it got in her way. As always, they lied to me…”

“I suppose that is a possibility, though I think that it is important to note that I do practise physique cultivation alongside killing intent.”

“Hmph.”

“Can I… take a sample of your blood?” Jing Ling asked all of a sudden, earning a displeased glare from Shufen Bai Shu and more confused looks from the other two, while Wei Yi just looked at him and shook her head.

“For now, no. If we do not end up getting along, then I would hate to assist in your various experiments,” she explained, looking towards the two that had not yet spoken.

The tower of muscle, Kai Feng Zhan, looked at her and said, “They sent me here for someone strong. Prove that you are strong. Hit me.”

“Hit you? Sure. Stand in the middle of the room so that I don’t damage the wall too much.”

He did as she asked, his expression betraying neither confidence nor lack thereof. By the look of it, he seemed to be testing her genuinely and without any negative intentions, truly attempting to confirm whether or not she was truly the famous Moon Splitter that had earned the attention of the prison realm.

Wei Yi glanced at Jing Ling to make sure that he did not want to move away, then drew her fist back and gathered her strength in her arm before punching the air before Kai Feng Zhan.

With this attack, she used all of her strength but did not invest a single drop of her physique energy nor her techniques into it, as she intended to show him and the other three exactly how capable she was in every single one of her abilities individually, to show them exactly how little chance they had going against her while she limited herself to a single field, not to mention how weak they would be if she performed the Moonlight Ire again, this time targeting them.

Her fist flew toward him then stopped in mid-air, an inch away from the man’s chest – even with her height, she could not comfortably strike his face without punching straight up, which would endanger the ceiling of the passages and potentially lead to a major collapse, just as it had in Automaton Point.

The air between her fist and his chest was suddenly compressed, then, with nowhere else to go, it exploded outwards, striking his chest and being forced outwards and around him. In just one instant, the force of her strike crashed into the walls and floor behind him and instantly cracked and crushed the stone as if it was nothing.

Much of the force ended up heading directly towards Jing Ling, who hastily raised his hands the moment that he realised that the impact was more powerful than he must have anticipated. Crimson light surged from his hand, expanding to a circular barrier in front of himself that he quickly limited to cover only his body and nothing else, but even then, when the force struck this barrier, it cracked nearly instantly, with the next second causing it to shatter into nothingness as the remainder of the strike landed directly on him, pushing him into the wall and likely breaking one or two bones.

Although Kai Feng Zhan looked unmoved, his muscles twitched from the impact and a small stream of blood flowed involuntarily from his mouth.

“You… are strong.”

“Strong? So she is strong…” Hui Xin, the previously silent woman, suddenly leapt to her feet and went over to Wei Yi, sniffing at her from a small distance, “Can I bear your children? Can you give me your se-”

“I am a woman, Hui Xin. I can’t do anything of the sort,” she replied, lightly pushing her away after cleansing her whole arm with physique energy, “Now, do you mind if we get to the alliance discussion? I’d rather not spend the rest of our time messing around with random battles when we could be pursuing freedom from the prison realm itself.”

“I want to test your killing intent! Let’s-”

“Jing Ling, did you hear what I had just said?” Wei Yi said, rolling her eyes, “However, if that’s what you want to do, let me get it out of the way in one go.”

She stretched out both hands and released her physique energy out of the right and killing intent out of the left. Above her left palm, a thick sphere of crimson gathered and illuminated the room in an even deeper light than before, while the sunlight that formed within her right palm congealed into a miniature sun, clashing with the crimson and splitting the room in two. One side saw a deeper killing intent than they had ever seen, while the other witnessed the majesty of sunlight.

“This is my killing intent and my physique energy. All four of you should understand how this compares to your own power, correct?” she asked as she controlled the energies to wrap around her arms and retreat under her skin, “If you make things easier for me, I could make them easier for all of you once we return to the Planar Continents.”

“Or so you claim. You could be strong, but- what did you just say?”

“… Return to the Planar Continents? That’s entirely plausible, and nigh guaranteed so long as-”

“No, no, physique energy and killing intent? How exactly is that meant to work? If you wish to lie to us, it’s no use,” Shufen Bai Shu said, shaking her head, “The Council of Crimson understands enough about the meridians to know that it isn’t possible to achieve this kind of cultivation.”

“This is the second time I’m forced to repeat this, but yes, physique energy and killing intent. Did you fail to pay attention?” Wei Yi repeated, narrowing her eyes.

“You fool, why should I have to pay attention to-”

The woman’s words were cut short when Wei Yi suddenly grabbed her neck and threw her into the wall, crossing the gap between the middle of the room and the edge within a single breath, all while tightly and confidently grasping the woman’s pale skin. Within her empty hand, she condensed a thick wisp of killing intent, which she then brought towards the woman’s head.

“Then listen to me now, you idiot. This, right here, is killing intent. You’ll need to feel it in order to confirm this, won’t you?” Wei Yi said, her eyes radiating with an immense quantity of crimson light while she pressed her killing intent-filled hand against the woman’s face, “Come on, you can sense the hatred within, can’t you? This can’t possibly be physique energy or even fucking planar energy, can it? Are you going to speak?”

Shufen Bai Shu wasn’t able to reply immediately after she had been shoved into the wall, nor was she able to immediately deal with the terrifying quantity of hatred directed at her despite her own cultivation, and the additional helping of killing intent being forced directly into her head certainly didn’t help matters. Despite trying to use her own technique and crimson energy to repel the intrusion, she felt herself instantly becoming overwhelmed with the vision of a terrifying battlefield, countless warriors fighting within a cage of storm walls, and a figure that stood far, far above it all, greater than a king, or an emperor, or even the Master of Yi City himself – the female figure towered over her like a god.

“I-It’s killing intent!” she cried out, unable to control her own voice, all of the nobility and pride typically invested into her speech being discarded for naught but terror.

“Excellent. Then,” Wei Yi removed her hand from the woman’s face and dispelled the killing intent before gathering a small sphere of sunlight, “tell me, where do you least mind being scarred permanently so that you can best learn your lesson?”

She had not initially intended to be this harsh, but after noticing that they were only paying any attention to her after she proved her strength, she decided to make sure that none of these ambassadors believed that she was someone that didn’t live up to whatever tales they must have created within their minds. Naturally, she couldn’t possibly be a towering giant that used only her fists, nor did she intend to fit their exact images of her, and so she had to make up for that by establishing a far more ruthless image for herself.

In the long term, this would also prevent insubordination, so it wasn’t much of an issue.

“No, don’t-”

“You’re right, there aren’t any vital organs near your sides, so burning that part won’t matter too much, will it? Furthermore, your clothing isn’t that important, so I can burn straight through, no?” she prevented her from saying anything and brought the sunlight into contact with her clothes.

Due to it being an extremely powerful form of physique energy from what appeared to be one of the greatest physiques, it seared through the cloth immediately upon contact, heating the skin beneath it just as quickly. Shufen Bai Shu desperately attempted to get away from her, but no matter what she did, she could not escape Wei Yi’s tight and practised grasp.

As the surface of her skin began to be burnt, the woman seemed to finally realise how to escape.

“Yes, this is physique energy! This is physique energy! Please, you don’t have to continue, Moon Splitter!” Shufen Bai Shu exclaimed, tears forming within her eyes.

“Hm. Are you sure about your judgement?”

“Yes, I’m sure!”

“… Fine. Now, let us move onto spiritual will. Do you know much about it, or must I provide you with a lecture on this as well?”

“Y-Yes, I-”

“Think about your words, you fucking idiot. Are you certain that you know about spiritual will and what it can do to you? Do you know about the other side of the central storm wall? Do you know about Sanctuary and the Sanctums?”

“No…”

“Then why did you not just say so? I’m not some kind of interrogator that only cares that you agree with my accusations, I am attempting to teach and educate you while you ignore my words and ignore your very own eyes while I display the method of splitting the moon to you. Image if someone else was in your place – they would never overlook the possibility of understanding such a powerful technique,” Wei Yi shook her head, releasing her grip on the woman’s neck and returning to the centre of the room, “Just so that everyone else is clear, let me show you this once more.”

She brought her hands together and listed the three forms of energy that she could freely harness within this world.

“Killing intent,” crimson energy gathered around her, before being briefly transformed into Antithesis energy to demonstrate a part of her full abilities to them, splitting and manipulating it for a while before returning it into her body.

“Physique energy,” bright dawn light surged from every exposed part of her body, the upper third of her arms, her feet, her head, hair, neck and the parts of her chest that were not covered by the somewhat loose Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival. After the muscular giant ascertained that this was indeed powerful physique energy, she also transformed it to moonlight energy briefly, converting it back quickly as she could not maintain it in that state for long without the Moonlight Ire technique.

“Spiritual will,” she finished, releasing the weak-looking energy from within her meridians.

As this was incredibly weak as a display, she forcefully transformed it into Demonic Ire power, causing it to gather around her and visibly radiate power as it drained everything from the air and surged into the aura around her, though she prevented it from forming any of the typical circles around her and instead caused it to explode the second that it acquired sufficient energy.

That explosion, albeit minor by her usual standards, shook the room with its power, both literally and figuratively.

“Do you believe that you speak to the Moon Splitter now? Will you listen to my words?”

“Very strong. I’ll listen,” Kai Feng Zhan nodded, seemingly unperturbed by her display.

“Yes, your blood will make for good test material…”

The bestial woman still appeared intent on finding some way to mate with her, so Wei Yi interpreted it as an agreement.

“Excellent. Oh, and Shufen Bai Shu,” she turned in her direction, causing her to tremble involuntarily, “Remember that this was purely directed at you. If I hear that the Council of Crimson thinks that I have no intention of working with them and decides to go to war with my faction, the other three represented factions and I will be all too keen to capture their territory and make good use of it, won’t we?”

The other three nodded quickly, for none of them could think of a good reason not to claim more land and resources for themselves, while Hui Xin just used it as an opportunity to lean forward in her seat.

“I wouldn’t make such a mistake, Moon Splitter…” the woman also shook her head quickly, slowly recovering from her mental and physical damage as quickly as she could. Although she had acted poorly to begin with, there was clearly a reason why she was brought on to handle the case of the Moon Splitter instead of any other powerful members of the Council of Crimson, and so she was able to adapt to the situation rather than forming a stupid grudge.

“Great. In that case, let us move onto the terms of our cooperation.”

“With whom?”

“Another poor question. I am speaking to all four of you, so, naturally I desire an alliance with all four of your factions. Is that not obvious?”

“Why should we work with them?” Kai Feng Zhan asked, looking at the three cultivators of killing intent, “You and I are strong, unlike them. Your physique is strong. You will do well in the Hold of the Mighty.”

“Before the rest of you start, let me explain the issue with your ideas. Our goals should be to break out of here and to get revenge on those who put us, our ancestors and everyone that has had to suffer because of the Great Families, and here you lot are, discussing petty rivalries caused by the form of energy that you use?” Wei Yi quickly stopped the others from agreeing with him, “What are you benefiting from? What is the point of all of this? So much land that you could be using to work on shattering the storm walls, on developing the world, on growing your population and ensuring that everyone practises the best techniques to be as ready as possible once your freedom is achieved!”

“You speak of freedom…” Hui Xin suddenly spoke with an odd degree of seriousness, “You think you can earn it?”

“More than that. I can guarantee that it is within my reach. You’d like to know why, no?”

They did not deign her with a reply, for it was more than a little obvious. The desire for freedom, dulled as it had been after the many years of failure, was rekindled in full after the appearance of the moon and sun, and so the topic became significantly more serious in just a short amount of time. If there was indeed a chance for an escape, no matter how difficult, most would grab directly onto it.

Thus, she raised one hand and formed a fist with it, drawing their attention to it before she gathered her killing intent, physique energy and spiritual will around her dantian and separated a small clump of energy from within, bringing it in that protected state towards her hand.

“What is the most powerful form of energy in existence?” she asked, keeping her hand shut.

“Killing intent,” two of those that used it replied thusly.

“Physique energy,” Kai Feng Zhan also answered exactly as she expected.

“The blood!” Jing Ling stated definitively, and with great certainty.

She allowed a smile to appear on her face and shook her head, infusing the majority of her remaining mental and physical energies into the nascent rift to grow it as much as possible and make up for the energy that she was about to waste.

“Not at all. All of these come from one source, and all can contribute to it. Planar energy is superior.”

It was then that she opened her hand and revealed it – a small sphere mostly obscured by the three energies that were most plentiful within the prison realm, and yet, the true majesty of the cosmic energy within shone through in its entirety. It was in a crystalline form, just as within her dantian, and it radiated a power that could not be compared with any of those that surrounded it. Through the magnificent edges and facets of the cosmic energy, one could see an endless sky full of glorious stars, nebulae and distant galaxies that illuminated the chamber in an entirely different light.

“And I still retain access to it. I can still cultivate it. I can set us free.”

Their eyes widened, even as she quickly returned the cosmic energy into her body and into the safety of the dantian so that it could not be consumed further.

“So, will your factions side with me and support me in my pursuit to shatter the storm walls, or will stand back and be remembered for doing nothing?” she asked them, “If you would bring freedom to this world and death to the Greats, but think that I can do nothing even with this energy, then come to the central storm wall in two years. I will show you that they are not an unbreakable force, and that, with enough time, all of them can be broken.”