V3C15: Highway Robbery

On the 28th of the second month, the weather was clear and pleasant. The sun shone straight upon the land, unobscured by clouds or various planar phenomena that occasionally clutter the air above the common populace, and there was no sign of incoming rain nor storm. Whether one was an average person or a cultivator within a high realm, they could appreciate the calm atmosphere this created.

Nevertheless, that did not mean that some would not engage in criminal activities, and that there were no forces plotting all kinds of things beneath, above and on the surface itself, whether they thought that they would achieve an overall benefit to mankind or sink it in favour of some other species or being. Some desired the downfall of life as a whole, while others, the likes of the Blood-tinged Church if the rumours regarding their goals and methods were to be believed, desired to change the world’s very perception of life as a whole, and to completely flip the nature of the world, cultivation and countless other things that only they had even considered to be important.

The primary focus of the Ning District on this day was not on any of those groups or factions, but on a small group of traders travelling towards the portcullis that sealed the district away from the outside world.

Their wares were limited in variety, consisting entirely of herbs and basic foods that could be brought across long distances without any requirement for expensive arrays or other methods of preserving them, thus making the journey far cheaper, more profitable and less risky than the delivery of something like authamite wine, which would begin to decay the moment that the bottle was damaged sufficiently to allow even a drop of the wine to come into contact with the air.

As a caravan of people that were no higher than the third realm, their speed was limited and not too far beyond the typical human limits, since everything that they brought with them reduced their pace to that of their horses and carts and would have hardly permitted them to display their full abilities even if they did decide to carry everything on their backs.

At this point in the journey, while they were only an hour or two away from the Ning District, they did not expect to have any stops or interruptions.

‘How naïve.’

All of a sudden, an enormous figure made of absolute frost and cold rose out of nothing, stretching out its arms as two spheres of blinding energy gathered within its hands. It easily shadowed half of the merchants and brought all of them to an absolute halt.

Then, the two spheres of light burst into a beam each, a thick darkness surrounded by frost shot out and cut into the road, splitting that segment of the road away from the rest of it with two lines of absolute cold, converting the dirt and grass into white, unmoving sculptures after just an instant of nearing the twin beams, whereas that which was directly beneath the beams was obliterated utterly and completely, digging into the ground and creating a small trench on either side of the trader group.

Any who would have scattered were forced to stay put as the figure slowly advanced towards them, floating above the ground without any sign of legs or feet with which it could walk, which, in combination with its ethereal appearance and the impossibility of such a giant existing outside of the eastern ocean caverns, instead made everyone look to the ground and to the hill behind which the figure had appeared from in order to learn who was responsible for the appearance of such a powerful apparition, and what the purpose of their appearance was. Of course, only the most experienced and calm amongst the merchant group, primarily the guards who had seen many ambushes before, were able to think things through to such an extent, but their final goal was the same amidst their panic to ensure that the horses did not flee and that they did not lose their goods.

“Traders, cease your advance!” a mysterious voice, like the combined conglomeration of many spirits, sounded from beyond the hill, advancing at the same speed at the enormous ethereal figure in the air, “We, the Mirror Plane Aberrations, demand it!”

Most of the traders and guards shared a confused look. None of them had ever heard of such a group, so for the mysterious voice to announce their identity before actually showing themselves was strange, to say the least, although there was the possibility that they were a faction that had appeared since their last visit to the Ning District, or that they were only exposing themselves now, which is what most of those with calm heads assumed.

After a moment, the guards readied their weapons and headed to the side of the caravan, as to shield the traders that quickly retreated to the back and hid behind their merchandise.

Finally, after a lengthy wait – forced by the incredibly slow rate of advancement of the enormous figure – they saw these mysterious aberrations. Their number appeared to be somewhere in the double digits, but it was difficult to count them precisely as all but two or three figures constantly flickered, shifted and moved, moving similarly to the two figures and yet acting apart from them, making it difficult to discern whether they were even real. The enormous giant apparition appeared to be bound to the larger of the stable figures, both of whom were shrouded in darkness and cold that completely obscured their features.

The only thing that could be guessed from their figures was that they were female, based on their general slenderness and the shapes on the shorter figure’s chest, although they couldn’t even be sure that those weren’t simply confusing mirages phasing into one of them, or that their appearance was not being warped by the broken mirror-like distortion around them.

What couldn’t be determined, no matter who looked upon them, was their cultivation.

Neither of their energies were clear, so they were forced to rely on the absolutely immense power of the twin beams to estimate the abilities of the Aberrant’s leader, and that placed her at the peak of the fourth realm, if not above. To so utterly obliterate everything in the path of the beams, including freezing the air itself to the point of near solidity, with several sheets of frozen particles dropping onto the ground after the cold had slightly dispersed within the air.

“What do you want from us?” one of the merchants called out, remaining behind his cart, “We can pay you-”

“You must leave this land! It is ours, for here is where the Mirror Plane shall descend! You, the cracks in the mirror, must not intrude during this most delicate process, lest you corrupt our most sacred of tasks!” the larger figure proclaimed, gesturing wildly and with great excitement, although the continued oddity about her voice left her true feelings rather unclear.

Some of the traders shared a glance from behind their carts and items, then decided that it was probably worth leaving for now, causing one of the merchants to reluctantly get up from the cart and say, “W-We can leave! Just-”

“Your items shall be used as tribute for the Great Aberrant! Leave them and go back to your lands and tell everyone to never return until our Mirror Plane has finally come into reality!”

“Fuck, so they are just bandits! Guards, you should attack right-”

“Disruptions to our order shall not be tolerated!” the mirage-obscured woman shouted, her voice shaking the heavens as the enormous titan above her raised a hand, from which another beam shot out and struck in front of the merchant, instantly annihilating the empty cart that he had been hiding behind, “You have only one opportunity to repent, so that the Great Aberrant may grant you forgiveness. Otherwise, you shall perish.”

“P-Please forgive me! Don’t kill me! Don’t!”

“This guy is so incredibly cowardly…” one of the guards muttered, just before he realised that his legs were also shaking, both from the cold air travelling from the frozen ground around him and from the absolute power of the beam.

“Then leave, mirror fractures, and do not return!”

With one of the merchants surrendering and fleeing, the others did not remain in place for long, as they also fled with great haste. The entire reason for them choosing this particular route was that it would be cheapest and safest, so they would not stick around to protect cargo that barely put a dent into their plentiful funds. The guards were there just for the protection of the merchants and their goods, and while they thought that it was a shame to abandon so much to mysterious attackers, the ones that would pay them were the merchants, so they were forced to accompany them as well – although one or two of them did grab a few items to feed themselves with.

Since the road was cut off on both sides, they had to escape via the side of the road opposite to the aberrations, then run around the area of absolute yin and return onto the main road, when the Mirror Plane Aberrations launched a few more beams of immense frost at them to encourage their speed to increase.

After they disappeared into the distance, the many mirage-like figures as well as the Titanic Demolisher both vanished, with Wei Yi dropping to the ground while holding her head.

“Shit, this…” she shut her mouth and continued the rest in her head as to not expose too much weakness in front of Min Lian, not that the assassin seemed to be responding with anything other than care and concern as she knelt beside her and ensured that she didn’t strike the rough stone road on the way down, ‘this hurts way too fucking much. How is this Red Phantom Flood thing meant to be used? It’s like it splits your very mind into pieces!’

“Yeah, that’s exactly how it works… for you,” pairs of green flames illuminated thousands of grins.

“Almost cruel, this. To provide something that can only be used by you to another…”

“It was you and her that agreed, so you should have been well aware. To torture a girl like that… you have experience in that, don’t you?”

“Hm… Still, she’s holding up quite well, all things considered.”

“Yes… yes… I can see the beginning of something, can’t you? An ember, a spark…”

“Indeed. It’s not quite there yet, but I can already imagine where it might be going…”

“Master, have you recovered?”

“Yes, sorry for that. This technique is significantly straining on the mind, and something that I ought to replace in the future,” Wei Yi answered, with both of them no longer being surrounded by the darkness that she had created through the Binder of the Dark’s technique, “Go through the items in the carts and confirm that we had attacked the correct group.”

“Right away,” the assassin nodded, departing to look through a few of the carts while Wei Yi sat in place and recovered some of her energy through the external planar energy in the air.

‘Fuck… I’m not going to use this without scoffing a thousand Will Strengthening pills first. Whoever created this must have been in a state where their mind was already fractured, as they would be able to break one of the pieces further away and not be hurt too much by this…’

She did not know how close to the truth she actually was.

Even if she did, fathoming the exact scenario that had led to the creation, acquisition and development of the Red Phantom Flood would be difficult without much, much more experience in far stranger things.

“Master, everything appears to have been contaminated. This was a suitable target for immediate acquisition,” Min Lian reported back once she found a few items that had a particularly large quantity of malevolent yin within them, “Furthermore, judging by the general behaviour of the merchants and their guards, they appear to have been intimidated to a suitable degree. In the future, they ought to be reluctant about visiting this district without clarification that the supposed Mirror Plane Aberrations have been removed, and ought to convince at least two people each that it is dangerous to make the same journey.”

“That was the plan. Go through those carts, I will look at these, and everything that is of vital importance will be stored away via spatial methods while the rest can be brought into the city under the cover of my stealth methods. From there, I had asked you to investigate that small gang you had mentioned. Are they suitable for this?”

“They are a group of young bandits who have slightly greater power than their peers but do not believe that they will rise further in any reasonable period of time, causing them to act in an antagonistic fashion against those peers. Some continue to speak of other or greater purpose, so I believe that there is a chance that they will be easily swayed so long as their general weakness can be overcome,” she said, “Most are between eighteen and twenty-four, male, of central continental descent, without strong familial ties.”

“In that case, they should suffice. Let’s go.”

Both of them got to work, pillaging the trade caravan for everything and anything that they could find. As everything carried on the caravan was either a common herb or food, their primary interests were in things that were being smuggled alongside them, or in particularly exceptional examples of such things that lacked malevolent yin or were of a higher quality than the rest.

Such items were naturally limited in quantity, but this ordinary trade caravan turned out to have several examples of them, with two boxes lacking yin contamination and several containing individual herbs of high quality.

After they were stored away in the limited space available inside of the House of Gold, the rest was split into two halves. One was thrown into the Kong Prison Realm for the usage of the people there, so that they could adapt to the various foods of the Planar Continents slowly and before being thrown into this world without any of the Beast’s blood or the dried herbs that were typically used for the creation of pills, and the other was to be brought back with them, for the small bandit group.

They removed the last boxes from the carts and then froze everything that remained of the merchant caravan, allowing the horses to flee into the wilderness as they were in no way necessary for their plans.

With these items in their possession, they hid behind the veil of the Binder of the Dark once more and returned into the city by leaping above the walls, avoiding the attention of others with a few stealth methods to make the shadow caused by them remain on the ground and then disappear into nothingness, emulating certain varieties of shadow-like planar beasts that can be found all throughout the Planar Continents and generally pose no great threat unless countless numbers of them accumulate and decide to target a single foe.

Even if they did have some suspicion regarding the suddenly appearing and disappearing shadow, they would be forced to investigate the forest, not the interior of the city, as there was no possibility of the beast crossing the enormous iron wall that had been created by the Master of Yi City.

In truth, the shadow formed by them proceeded into a part of the city where the cultivators were few and the common folk were not, with many stores, houses and lands owned by them. Amongst them, the highest realm to be found was the first, and the highest stage was the third, meaning that even the strongest were entirely insignificant in comparison to the weakest people around that segment of the district.

Fortunately, that kind of thing was exactly what Wei Yi had been looking for. She had a loyal enough force in the Kong Prison Realm, but she needed to establish a secondary force outside, one that would be likely to remain loyal to her even if she left for a while to either go to one of the other districts or if she needed to disappear for a while due to the pursuit of the Greats. As she had learnt previously, one of the easiest methods of getting someone to trust her and act in her favour was by doing something irreplaceable for them. In the case of the hatred avatars, she prevented their downfall and ensured their safety. In the case of the people of Sanctuary, she prevented their slaughtering by the phantoms of the otherworldly demon. In the case of the guards of Beast’s Rest, she gave them power, techniques and a greater quantity of land within which they had some authority.

In this case, her approach was going to be the latter, as these people desired strength, and that was something that she could easily provide to any living – or not, as in the case of hatred avatars – soul.

Since the bandits that she was looking for were effectively ordinary people in comparison to cultivators of her realm, not to mention her own abilities, finding one of their number trying to extract a bribe from an ordinary man was not challenging, nor was following him to their hideout, seeing as he lacked the ability to externalise his spiritual perception at his present cultivation.

Their base turned out to be the large basement of one of the otherwise unassuming residences, presumably having been created before the other buildings were placed around it, giving it far more space than any of the modern structures would be able to afford for themselves. It was separated into several segments by the support pillars placed in various points in the room, with a kind of armoury, dining area and even a sleeping area, although it only had six beds while the group of bandits consisted of more than twice that at the very least.

‘Clearly, this is not the most professional hideout in existence. Most of them are probably only here because they cannot find any work for themselves that would be more profitable than this, and because their neighbours are able to pay them a sufficient amount to allow them to live with little effort,’ Wei Yi thought as she scanned the area with her spiritual perception, ‘That one is sketching himself in combat with a common depiction of Ahm, primordial cyclops… Lofty ambitions, young man, but considering the fact that the primordial god was only in the eighth realm, it should not be entirely impossible…’

As she browsed through a few of the other scrolls, books and sketches that were present around their hideout, she noticed that most followed a similar trend. These people wished to combat ancient beasts, terrible monsters and impossible foes with overwhelming might and a pinch of clever strategy and cunning, but they understood that they could not do so with their own skills and talent. Intimidating others for money could never be as satisfying for them, but it allowed them to feel like they did possess that immense might, even if it was only for a moment of power over another.

This was absolutely perfect.

She bid Min Lian to follow her, entering through the front door to the basement without obscuring herself the moment that she got past the doorway. This time, her approach was going to be simple and straightforward, to display exactly what the young men and women desired, and to prove to them that she could deliver it to them without as many costs as so many other groups and sects would require.

This time, as she did not wish to bring attention to Wei Yi the Alchemist or create ties with Wei Yi the Aberrant, she chose to follow the yang path to its extreme, adding a golden sheen to her skin with the Golden Form, coating herself in the illusory Pyromaniac’s Coat, placing the Sun’s Regalia on her chest and surrounding herself in armour of dawn light and gold, embellishing every detail that was already there with ludicrous quantities of light and vibrance, almost turning into a god that walked amongst humanity.

To their credit, they detected her presence almost immediately, with one of the ‘guarding’ individuals leaping up and shouting to alert the others in the basement.

“Greetings, everyone. I can see that you are rather alert, so I will be straightforward and get to the point. I can offer you power – of the third realm at the very least, and far beyond so long as you pay attention – and all I need in exchange is your service to protect this district from those that would seek to bring it down,” Wei Yi introduced herself, speaking in a relaxed manner that would befit one that appeared as grand as her, “Do you have any objections, or do you perhaps have a question?”

“You…” one of the men, a young fellow who had picked up a club to attack the intruder, stared at her for a few moments before asking perhaps the most obvious question, even if it was not one that was particularly reasonable in front of someone that looked like her, “How can we believe that?”

“So, that’ll be a question from you, young man. I don’t think that there is any better way to display the truth than with combat, but… I’m afraid that I am entirely out of your league,” she said, glancing downwards in such a deliberate fashion that every other pair of eyes in the room, her personal assassin excluded, did the same thing.

A collective gasp emerged from their mouths, as they saw that she was not standing on the ground, but floating an inch above it, her feet standing on the air as easily as one might stand on stone or dirt.

“For this reason, you may challenge my subordinate. She is only in the first realm and shall not use any planar energy whatsoever during her battle with you. Come all at once, or one by one, but I guarantee her victory nonetheless. Under my guidance, reaching her level will not be challenging. In minutes, I can grant you all kinds of powerful methods. With a few hours, I can raise your cultivation and impart you plenty of knowledge with which those techniques would be even more powerful. If you spare me days and weeks, I can allow you to oppose even the primordial gods.”

The man at the back, who chose to guard his sketchbook over the entrance, visibly trembled, a number of thoughts undoubtedly passing through his head, including the possibility that she was aware of his interests and desires, although that seemed outrageous to him. How could he have not noticed it if someone this bright and outstanding had investigated or tailed him, and why would she even bother bringing it up?

However, when he looked around and saw similarly shocked reactions, he considered that he might not have been the only one to fantasise of such things.

“So, what do you say?”

Her words finally caused them to look at their potential opponent. Their immediate reactions were mixed, but as opposed to someone who could float and was covered in so much regal energy, the relatively plain woman before them seemed to be far less of a threat. None of them intended to look down on her because she was a woman, even if her assets seemed a little too large to not inconvenience her at least a little bit, but if she would truly avoid all planar techniques, they were bound to succeed through sheer numbers… right?

One person gripped their weapon more tightly and considered stepping forward, and although he did not do so, it did not evade Wei Yi’s attention, prompting her to smile and take a step back while Min Lian went in front of her.

“Since you have some confidence, why not have a go? I promise, my companion shall not inflict any mortal harm upon you, and any serious damage that may be caused can be reversed for free, and in an instant,” she promised them, simultaneously encouraging some and scaring others due to the implication that she believed Min Lian to be capable of beating them half to death with ease.

Nevertheless, the man that had spoken earlier did step up to the challenge, his club held so tightly in his hand that it went entirely white and would likely be unable to let go any time soon, and after he took a deep, deep breath, he proceeded to nearly stumble as he rushed forward and tried to smash the club directly down onto her head. Even by the standards of those in the first realm, his movements were slow and clumsy, meaning that even if some of his companions in the bandit group were up against him, they would be able to respond with ease to evade sufficiently for the strike to land on the shoulder or on the arm.

When Min Lian was faced with such an attack, she was naturally able to respond even more effectively.

With just a single smooth movement, she stepped out of the way of the strike and grabbed onto his arm, utilising his own momentum to throw him onto the ground.

As she stood right in front of the stairs that had led to the surface, he landed with his back on the steps, several of his bones cracking audibly and painfully as he let out a cry that was entirely inaudible past an invisible barrier of killing will placed at the entrance of the basement, to ensure that no qualified authorities broke up their battle.

Before he could suffer, Wei Yi lowered herself just enough to place her hand above his body, then channelled the immense pool of lifeforce stored within her into him, restoring his form in a single second.

“There, you are healed. Unless you have a greater strategy than this, one that could turn the tide of battle entirely, I would advise you not to re-enter the battle,” she told him, standing up and looking to the others with an intelligent and calm expression, “In combat, pure might is important, but it must be tempered with tactic and intellect. When you oppose someone with greater might, raw power is insufficient and will only lead you to failure. For instance, if you limit the force of your attack but instead move more quickly and less obviously, you will have a greater chance of striking your foe.”

The next two that rushed in did not stop to consider why she would be providing this much information to them, instead putting her advice into action immediately. As they got closer to Min Lian, they split from one another, with both deciding to strike at the same time to prevent her from being able to block one of the attacks without being hit by the other.

Of course, as this was something they had come up with at the last moment, it was full of flaws.

One attack was faster than the other, allowing Min Lian to grab the blade and easily force it out of his hand to block the incoming axe, which she was able to force out of his grip just as easily, tossing both weapons aside.

Two light strikes later, they were also downed, failing to withstand even a single attack at the strength of the first realm.

“Do remember that you oppose a powerful foe. Strikes that are outright feeble and careless will not be effective in the slightest, as you must ensure that you are not simply offering your own weakness for her to exploit,” Wei Yi offered another piece of advice to them while the remaining bandits were considering their next actions, “Do continue.”

And they did, but to no great effect. After more than half of them went down – with some rising once more to attempt a significantly different approach that resulted in similar failure – one was finally able to land an actual hit on Min Liang’s arm, but he was swiftly incapacitated all the same, with her wound recovering in moments through the continued support of Wei Yi’s killing will, which meant that anything that did not outright cut or shatter would be rendered absolutely null.

“We…” one of them looked at those that were still standing and made a decision, “We give up!”

“Is that so? Unfortunate, but expected. Get up, everyone, and form a line or two,“ Wei Yi said, lightly helping some of them stand up with a push of spiritual will, then stood in silence for a few moments to let their situation sink in, “As I have said, I can give you power, knowledge and fame. All you have to do is follow me. Before we begin, are there any that wish to leave?

“No? Good. Let’s begin.”