V3C2: Freedom

The unification process took a single point of anchor energy, but Wei Yi believed it to be entirely worthwhile, as the newly created Ascendant’s Dao surpassed everything within her arsenal so far. It was fast, strong, defensive and incredibly versatile, allowing her to perform anything she had incorporated into it with a dozen different means. Furthermore, if she learnt more methods, she could add them into the condensed technique as well, with the exception of the particularly exceptional and unusual skills.

“Before my son had left, he had told me that there were two possibilities for his fate. Either he would return with the Truth of the Universe, with his own solution to the source of power, or that it would be passed down to another that he believed would be suitable to continue his work. It appears that he chose thee, even if it was quite some time later,” Yi Shi Ming concluded, “That thou were also intending to rebuild Yi City appears to be a fortunate coincidence.”

“And so, he asked you to help me as you would him?”

“Indeed. I hope that thou art not too pressured by such a thing, but I sense that thou hath truly committed to thine path even without me. Since thou hath formed a faction of thine own in this desolate land, the decision of how to proceed is in thine hands.”

“It would probably be best to speak to them first, but I need to know a few things before I can do that,” Wei Yi replied, “For instance, how does this spatial realm work? If I wanted to, could I use some sealed part of it as a method of spatial storage, or could I take advantage of the empty space to bring armies into battle without any hints of them being there beforehand?”

“The answer to thine first question is no, unfortunately. Thou ought to have seen the process of bringing something into the Kong Prison Realm, and while I can perform all of the steps necessary on my own, this takes time. If thou hath the desire to collect a large quantity of items without hurrying, I could assist thee, but I coulds’t never match the likes of proper spatial treasures. Same for the matter of armies. People can be brought into and out of the realm with sufficient warning, but not for the means of a sudden ambush,” Yi Shi Ming stated.

“I suppose that it explains why spatial realms and spatial storage methods often differ. What about the laws of the world? Can I change them myself, or with your help?”

“Thou coulds’t, but I would recommend thee to get to a higher realm before thine attempts. The fabric of reality is complex, even for the spirit of it,” she said, “For now, I could control the presence of planar energy and the mental energies according to thine desire, so if thee wish to preserve the state of the Kong Prison Realm, it would not be difficult for me to do so. Furthermore, with enough time, I can change the geography of the realm, the materials it is made from, and much more.”

“Alright, then could I bother you to create a few ordinary sources of flowing water throughout the two halves, and perhaps form some mountains to replace the storm walls – and change the colour of the world! This hideous crimson and white hurts my eyes, really,” Wei Yi requested, “If possible, could we also get some natural sunlight so that everyone here won’t burn the moment they are exposed to it?”

“I will create the mountains when they pose no danger to others, but I will require thee to spend some time in the outer world to collect a few impressions of water and regular soil to then replicate it within the Kong Prison Realm,” she said, “However, I shalt show thee one way in which thee can influence the realm once thou art ready to return to the outside world, for this is best performed when thou art not within the centre of the realm for reasons that thee shalt witness when it occurs. Worry not about thine exit destination, for there is a place outside of the Yi District that was never looked at even in my time, a simple empty field.’

Wei Yi nodded, “Since you’re the spatial spirit, I’m sure that you are more aware of the situation outside than I am. I’ll let you do this while I practise with a few of my techniques to get used to new forms of energy at my disposal, then speak to my faction and announce their freedom.”

The mother of the Master of Yi City nodded, then dispersed the spatial dome that had given them the freedom to speak peacefully with one another. While she worked on something that Wei Yi was not yet fully able to perceive and comprehend, the latter stood up and performed a few stretches and exercises in order to adjust to the variance in her body as it was now, and during the transformation, which she could limit to changing very specific parts of her body.

For example, she could change as little as a finger, changing one of her left fingers into a claw if she needed to obtain a weapon for any kind of sudden, unexpected conflict, or transform her entire arm into the killing intent variant to raise her endurance and resistance to attacks in particularly dangerous situations. On the other hand – literally, for once – she could merge the Golden Form physique ability with the pale spiritual will form to mostly disguise it as the Golden Form made her skin darker whereas the spiritual will lightened it.

The same could not be said for the killing intent form, which made her rather disappointed when she discovered that despite possessing both forms of energy, only one side of her body could transform to the killing intent form, while the other could only enter the spiritual will form. It was possible to reinforce either side with both types of energy at the same time, but the effect was significantly greater whenever she applied the right type of mental energy onto the correct part of the body.

‘A shame, though not an unexpected one. At the very least I don’t need to split myself into two distinct halves and look silly unless I wish to unleash my full power,’ she thought, closing her eyes for a moment.

For a long, long time, she had been forced to limit her cultivation due to the inability to rapidly recover and strengthen herself from various physical alterations and effects, as this came from her incredible cosmic energy and the elemental energies that had been absorbed by the Truth of the Universe to enhance it. Curiously enough, Yi Shi Ming had never mentioned such an ability, nor did there appear to be the possibility of switching cultivation techniques on the fly in Kong Shi Meng’s original configuration for the characters, so it appeared either that they had gained some kind of new ability in between his possession of them and her acquisition of them, or that he had never chosen to use it due to his reliance of pure planar energy.

Either way, as she now had the time, she needed to make up for lost time, and the best way to accomplish that was by forcing her body to burn and maim itself to an extreme before allowing her planar energy and physique energy to combine and recover her wounds.

There was a natural limit to her body, so she would not need to do this more than a few times.

Naturally, she began the very moment that her planar energy had filled up her entire dantian, utilising the combination of every cultivation technique to affect her meridians, dantian and every physical part of her to tear through them in an instant, although she kept herself and her blood in one place with her killing will, preventing her body from collapsing without the support of her muscles. Quickly, vibrant cosmic light flooded every gap that had been created, forcing every separate muscle and bone to reconnect anew with greater might and power than before, imbedding the united Ascendant’s Body technique into every fibre of her being.

This time, she did feel the pain of the process, unlike the time that killing intent and spiritual will united collectively dulled all of her senses, but after every instant of unpleasant sensation, a soothing wave of regeneration caused her body to recover and quickly allowed her to get used to it, allowing her to increase the intensity of the process even more quickly than she had initially planned.

Her body’s ability climbed at a rapid pace, until she felt that her energy, as it currently was, would be insufficient to further advance her power in a reasonable length of time.

She ceased the constant destruction of her own physique and allowed her cosmic energy to recover her state to the peak, with the five elements that infused her energy finalising her enhancement process. Flame allowed her flesh to burn even more quickly and regenerate into a greater form, earth strengthened her defences, metal sharpened her attacks and further contributed to the reconstruction of her physique, water made her flesh more fluid and malleable and, finally, the wood energy increased her regenerative properties and greatened her sensitivity to the natural flow of energy.

Besides the greater quantities of energy that were provided to her by attacks and accidents of those in the fourth realm, such as the deceased talisman creator Liu Xiuying and Great Light, her present cosmic energy was sufficient to make up for the kinds of force that she lacked, as the addition of the two perfected realms of her cultivation brought her power up to that of someone approaching the first stages of the fourth realm, meaning that she had full access to nigh-solid externalised energy.

As she had stepped out of the crater and saw both the wearers of the crimson robes and some random creatures from the spiritual will side of the prison realm lying on the ground, split in half, she also saw the shards of Sharen e Mo on the ground, seemingly entirely untouched from the time that she dropped it.

‘Actually, I have an idea…’

She grabbed these shards and took a few items from the bodies before returning to Yi Shi Ming, who still stood in the field and looked into the depths of her reality.

“Yi Shi Ming, if I’m not bother you, could I ask you to create a small sealed segment of land where I can store things in the long term? I have a method of spatial storage of my own, but it is too small to be used regularly and needs to be emptied first, but I haven’t done so yet as the treasury in Beast’s Rest was beginning to fill up,” Wei Yi explained to her, showing her the House of Gold, “I’d ask whether you could somehow connect to this and combine the Kong Prison Realm and the House of Gold in their advantages and negate their weaknesses, but…”

“I cannot sense it, I’m afraid. I can, however, grant thee a sealed space quickly. Give me a single moment…”

With just a single wave of her hand, Yi Shi Ming changed something within the fabric of the world, then turned back to Wei Yi, gesturing for her to remove everything she did not wish to keep from the inside of her spatial storage, which she did quickly as she had long decided exactly what she would likely never require immediately due to her already being able to do exactly what these items did.

Countless items of varying designs and appearances poured out of the House of Gold, ranging from small orbs or trinkets that Wei Yi would hate to publicly display to another, to large chests, boxes, spheres and whatever else that the otherworldly mind of the House of Gold’s creator was able to envisage. All of these had some quantity of gold on them as decoration, and all performed various tasks that she had no need for at the moment. Despite that, she still made sure to lay them out as neatly as possible so that they were not damaged in the extreme case that they were truly useful in the end, or if she found a way to safely take them apart and create something unique on her own.

After another wave of her hand, Yi Shi Ming shifted the very space around them into a different part of the Kong Prison Realm, taking some of Wei Yi’s spiritual perception with them so that she could be aware of the state of these items.

With the combination of the fifth realm in killing will, the planar anchor and the newly created Ascendant’s Perception, as well as the ability to stabilise energy despite vast distances, she had no difficulties maintaining her perception as it was shifted somewhere into the ground, perhaps into the space below the prison realm itself, where the land ended and the empty reaches of the endless warp began, protected from that warp only by the will of the spatial spirit themselves.

“Is this sort of thing easy for those in the eight or ninth realm, or are they still severely limited in what they are able to do?”

“Well… In thine time, most progress stops thee at the sixth realm, correct? Then, the seventh is Oblivion Halo, named so due to the generation of large halos forming around the planar core and empowering thine abilities and greatly strengthening thine power. Then, in the eighth realm, thou hath Imperfect Rift… something surprisingly similar to the nascent rift in thine dantian. I suspect that thou shalt be able to merge to two together, or create a more powerful rift out of it, once thee reach the eighth realm,” Yi Shi Ming explained, “The last realm is one that I know the least about. The Eternal Gate realm is one that very few, including my son, had reached, and in a way, this far surpasses any other realm. It allows thee to wield nigh endless quantities of planar energy.”

‘Nigh endless, huh… It would have been hard to imagine before I had my nascent rift, but then again, it is apparently similar to the eighth realm, so I suppose that it isn’t too unusual for my perception to be slightly twisted,’ she thought, glancing inwards at the rift, ‘I wonder what that Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus was, and where it came from…’

“The eighth and ninth realms possess certain spatial capabilities, but they are ultimately limited without the usage of equipment and spatial metal. There is an exception, but…” Yi Shi Ming paused for a while, “I shalt show thee later. Go, do thine tasks.”

“Alright. I will return to this topic in the future, since I am interested in it, but that can be done later.”

She left the woman to her work once more, heading towards the crimson side of the prison realm and choosing to travel half-way to Beast’s Rest.

To a normal person, such a journey would have taken one or two days, and to her earlier self, it would have still occupied several hours of her own time, but now she was able to combine the power of the World’s Echo physique with the united Ascendant’s Movement to clear that space in far, far less time. She had already experienced the power of those in higher realms, as well as the incredible movement abilities of those in the fourth realm of the planar realm, but personally utilising those same techniques at the same level was still impressive.

Stopping on a hill in view of Beast’s Rest, she saw a small group of people gathering outside of the walls, some scattering to look at the sky above them while others clearly intended to head towards the now absent storm walls. Amongst them were the people that she had wanted to call upon in the first place, those being the ambassadors of the four free factions and Meng Chu, so she gathered some energy at her hands and whispered, “Beacon.”

In her attempts to remove the spoken element from the Light of Divinity and the Touch of God, she had failed to do so entirely, but found, with the aid of the Truth of the Universe, that she could instead limit it to simple words or commands relating to the way in which she wanted to use that energy.

With that command, a combination of planar energy and killing will burst out of her hands and sank into the ground, pooling for just a few moments before exploding into the air, cosmic tones mixing with a double helix of crimson and white as they created a great pillar that reached into the newly formed sky of the prison realm.

Now that the Kong Prison Realm was in its equivalent of night time, with all of the ambient light from the storm walls and the fog of killing intent and spiritual will disappearing after Wei Yi had absorbed it, an enormous pillar of light like that instantly illuminated everything in sight, drawing the eyes of all that were around to witness it. In particular, the combination of the cosmic colours of her planar energy mixed with the standard shades of the prison realm instantly attracted all eyes towards it, as such an unusual combination was either entirely unknown to the observer, or made them think of the only person who had been able to practise both spiritual will and killing intent at once.

In just a few seconds, all of the groups that were in any position to leave Beast’s Rest did so, rushing towards the pillar of light.

Typically, these kinds of people would be the ones that would need to take a day or two to make that journey, but although their cultivation had not yet advanced as significantly as Wei Yi’s – as she would make sure that their power rose with an inferior version of her Dao so that they would be more than mere cannon fodder against the Greats – they had received certain benefits from the twenty year support from Fu Zan. He had indeed been able to manipulate more than mere cloth, and although he struggled to use metal extensively within his work, even more so than when he tried to create anything other than obvious clothing, once he had some designs from Wei Yi to work with, he created a set of armour, robes and other equipment which could increase the physical ability of those that wore it, balancing out the physical weakness of killing intent cultivators and further enhancing the incredible might of physique cultivators.

With the additional benefit of the techniques that she had previously taught them, allowing them to enhance their and their allies’ speed, their journey took no more than an hour and a half, at the end of which some still retained a sufficient supply of energy to fight, if they needed to.

The first to spot her figure was Meng Chu, who brought her to the attention of the others with a simple shout, “Wei Yi! Did you do it? Did you take down the walls?”

“That’s right,” she replied, amplifying her voice using the Lion’s Roar while allowing herself to speak quietly, thus providing herself with the air of some unparalleled expert that could shake the heavens with a single breath, “I have now removed the storm walls permanently by draining their energy entirely, and have also ascended to the fifth realm.”

Some shouts of amazement came from the back of the approaching groups, but they were ignored.

“What about leaving the realm? Is that now possible, or is there still more work to be done?” he asked, clearly eager to leave as soon as it was physically possible to do so.

At that, Wei Yi smiled, and, after an instant of deliberation, confirmed her thoughts that revealing the existence of Yi Shi Ming would only raise questions and suspicions without providing her with any tangible benefit, instead saying, “I have also managed to acquire a certain degree of control over the prison realm, and can control entry and exit. Due to this, I have some certainty that the exit to this realm is in a safe location, but I believe that it would be best for me to investigate first and to find a base of operations from which to work from, and only then bring you out of here. Furthermore, without the storm walls, planar energy can be practised here once more, so it would benefit you to take the time to consider switching to it.”

Every single one of them had access to a derivative technique of the Secondary Meridians Technique, designed specifically to allow for the reconstruction of meridians for the cultivation of a different form of energy. It wouldn’t work on Wei Yi and her overly powerful physique, but it functioned for most.

As a result, it was relatively easy for them to cleanse their bodies of killing intent and convert to a different kind of cultivation, so long as they had the desire to do so. Some would not, or would consider it too lengthy of an endeavour to consider, as she saw some quickly shaking their heads and denying this opportunity, but others were clearly optimistic about such a possibility and looked at her with hopeful eyes once she had mentioned planar energy.

Just like the sun and moon, planar energy was one of the legends of the prison realm, one of the draws of the outside world, so they understood just how powerful it could be.

There was a third group, however, consisting of those who were somewhat doubtful of her claims, or those who had grown somewhat dissatisfied with the length of time that she had taken to fulfil her initial promises. Their number wasn’t sufficient to require action from Wei Yi or her faction, but now that she had shown them the path to freedom, they wanted to ensure that she was truthful.

“Hey, if you can exit the prison realm so easily, show us!” one called out, and the others nodded.

“Show you?” she raised an eyebrow, and nodded, “Certainly.”

Taking a step back, she waved one hand through the air in front of her, using the principles of Demonic Ire to carve out a complex but ultimately powerless array within the ground. Then, after they had a moment to take it in, she clicked her fingers.

A large rift opened up around her and swallowed her, a circle of crimson and white opening and then closing on her position.

To them, she disappeared entirely, while in her eyes, she saw green, brown, blue and the wondrous gold of the sun shining down upon her, through leaves and tree branches. In the distance, a large district of Yi City stood, with miniscule figures going about their business through streets that she found incredibly familiar.

She was free.