V3C30: The Gains of Battle

Returning to the spot where the Great Aberrant fell, she first confirmed that her appearance was still presentable and obscured by her hair suit and the shadow-like energy of the Binder of the Dark, as she wished to have freedom to do whatever she wanted without risking any influence on her current persona, as she would soon escape and would be able to take advantage of any positive reputation if – or, rather, when – she returned to the Ning District.

Fortunately, whatever had temporary stolen her perception of reality did not affect her energy nor cultivation, and so she was able to approach the Aberrant’s shard-like body and take one of the things that she had first noticed about him.

The immense quantity of anchor energy had somehow ended up above him and now glowed with such fantastic light that she was really curious to get someone else to inspect this gathering of energy and confirm whether or not they would be able to tell that something was there, for it seemed almost impossible to miss such a thing. However, she was short on time, and did not want to alert anybody else about her ability to interact with remnants of anchors, as she could attract a lot of attention and possibly become a target for some otherworldly demons that were able to do the same and wanted to collect every single otherworldly gift relating to this kind of ability.

After the first particle of anchor energy began to approach her hand, so did the rest of the enormous cloud, flooding into her body and being absorbed by the Truth of the Universe.

The count of anchor points swiftly rose by over a hundred, ending up at a total of two hundred and thirty-seven after every particle of energy ended up within her. At the same time, with every single point that she gained, she felt the air around her simultaneously get heavier and lighter, as if a weight had been added onto her that simultaneously strengthened her body.

‘So, it is when I absorb the particles themselves that I affect the density of planar energy within this world. With so many bits of anchor energy being processed at once, the increase was noticeable at the point of origin, but will likely be far less so the further out someone is,’ she theorised, kneeling beside the molten crater to take a closer look at the Great Aberrant’s remains, ‘If that set of flashes of light was due to some action of his, then he must have made a terrible mistake. Had he fought normally, with that larger and stronger form, he might have been able to kill me without too much trouble, so long as the excessive number of anchor points also increased his power in the same way that the multiple anchors of the Greats do.’

At first glance, there was nothing impressive about the pile of shards, but there was a trace of something within it, which she did not dare to touch with her own hands until she could be certain of exactly what it was.

Depending on the nature of the item, it could be anything between harmless and absolutely deadly, so it was generally safer to interact with strange things using raw strands of energy that could be severed at any time without any harm to oneself and one’s own cultivation, which is why she used raw, pure spiritual will to dig into the pile of shards and removed a small spherical object that appeared to be a large gem, although it still seemed to be made from glass.

‘I wonder what this is… Alright, I’ll touch it, I suppose…’ she sighed, and reached out to the glass.

The instant that her skin came into contact with it, the object melted into fluid that remained oddly reflective. It poured into her body, literally sinking through the pores on her skin and into her veins and muscles, travelling through them towards her dantian.

It was an unpleasant experience, and one that she did not ever wish to relive in the future, but it was hardly the worst she had been forced to deal with, so she just waited to see exactly what would occur upon it reaching its destination, although the current state of the mysterious characters was somewhat concerning – they were far slower in their movements, their light was significantly dimmer, and they did not look like they would be able to repeat the earlier repealing signal array no matter what kind of situation she might get herself into.

When it reached her abdomen, she witnessed it reach for the prison realm and sink into it, disappearing from the material realm.

Naturally, her perception followed it, finding a thin sphere of fog sink into the middle of the Kong Prison Realm, vanishing into the ground beneath the library where it somehow found a small underground chamber that was previously entirely unoccupied. It sank into the centre of the chamber, creating a small circle in the ground from which a pillar made from mirror shards rose to what was roughly her height.

‘What is that? Why in the heavens does one person have so many strange things?’ she paused and realised that she was unintentionally describing her current state, with the Truth of the Universe, the House of Gold, the Kong Prison Realm, this mirror pillar and a number of curiosities that she had taken from within the House of Gold, so she brought her attention back to what was relevant, ‘I don’t know what it is or how it functions, but regardless of whether or not I need to be inside of the prison realm to interact with it, I should first wait to get out of this district before trying anything. Who knows how much of my time it may occupy.’

As her perception emerged from the prison realm, she immediately detected several presences near her, hiding away and observing her. Based on their behaviour and the things that they were muttering to one another, they seemed to have gotten here around the time that she scared away the azure lights, so they didn’t see any of the battle or any other unpleasant moments.

Wei Yi stood in place for a while, then turned towards each one of her observers in turn while covering her aura and exact power as much as possible in order to give an impression that was in her favour.

“Your presence here is obvious. Come out.”

She used the same voice that had once been used for the identity of Da Gang, to ensure that it was even more difficult to connect her new form with

Such a request would not usually be heeded, but her intentional stares at certain points also brought those hiding spots to the attention of the other observers, resulting in them realising just how many different people were there and how clear their placement was, meaning that there was really no good reason for them to hide where they were. If they were going to come out, they might as well do so now, before anyone had a reason to be angered by their presence.

The first two that emerged were vary familiar to Wei Yi, for they were Chen Jushu and Chu Huazhi, with their faced covered by a veil and a basic wooden mask respectively. Judging by their designs, the veil was something that the former had already owned, but Chu Huazhi’s mask was likely taken from someone who was going to use it to create a proper design and wasn’t improved to have such things as eyeholes or anything of the sort, with the man in the fifth realm relying on his spiritual perception in order to navigate.

After that, the leader of the mercenary-like group appeared next, a man whose head was covered by a hood and a scarf that was pulled up to cover the lower half of his face.

The people after that were not ones that Wei Yi had the opportunity to meet, but judging by certain items that they attempted to hide by their own energy and spiritual perception, the next ones to emerge was the captain of the guard, one of the higher-ups of the Ning family, an array master that was the last to emerge due to her being too focused on examining the slowly dissipating arrays above them, and someone else from the Chen family, judging by the vast number of bags filled with coins on his body. That man’s outfit in particular was extremely excessive, and it was rather concerning that he was able to walk around without making much noise.

“There is nothing to see here. This threat is gone, and the next shall not be one that you can beat.”

The captain of the guard took objection to that statement, frowning beneath his helmet as he said, “What do you mean by that, and who are you? Explain yourself!”

“I fight for the restoration of Yi City, for Their downfall, and for freedom from the otherworldly demons. You may be able to fight the demons, for their powers vary in all ways, but They are not your match.”

“Who are they? How can experts in the fifth, sixth and seventh realms-”

“You witnessed the fog, did you not? With just twenty years of preparation by some common men, an entire district was engulfed in chaos. A single man that was in the fourth realm was driven mad and could have grown to consume the entirety of Yi City. Together, your energy was drained quickly, and if he managed to reach the peak of the ninth realm, you would never stand a chance, even at the same realm,” she stated, “As for Them… Stating their names will draw their attention. I suspect that some of you are familiar with them. They share your names, but they live away from the districts, and have an aura that overpowers all others within the nearest realm. They will appear here soon, hence why the Great Aberrant was forced to act with greater haste.”

As she spoke, she looked towards the important member of the Ning family, as well as Chen Jushu and the other member of that family, for they were the three that were most likely to have had contact with the Greats in the past.

“You oppose that group?” the array master asked, “Why?”

“They hold back the advancement of society, technology and cultivation. They force the world to serve their will, for many techniques to be hidden and forgotten as they could challenge their superiority. They rely on the power of multiple anchors to overpower all, and torture and kill anyone that dares to do so much as exist when that existence is not to their liking. Their Testament-”

She was not sure how to proceed, as her own information about Testament was extremely limited beyond the name itself, but the person from the Chen family was more than sufficient to resolve that as he suddenly charged towards her, swinging a weapon made from gold and an edge of immortal gold that made the two-handed blade truly dangerous. That man was in the fifth realm, and thus his movements were immensely fast, crossing the gap between him and her in a single breath.

And yet, when the edge of the blade should have cut into flesh, cloth and whatever else could have been beneath the darkness of her planar energy, it instead passed straight through as Wei Yi flickered for a moment, making no movements to evade in the eyes of the other observers.

The World’s Echo physique was not well known, and even those that knew of it were always misinformed about its true power due to the fact that physique energy could not reasonably come to be within the Planar Continents. As a result, not a single one amongst them entertained the thought of this being her method of escape for any longer than a moment, after which they had no choice but to consider the fact that she had not been scared in the slightest when the blade came at her, and had been able to defeat the Great Aberrant seemingly on her own.

To them, great power seemed to be the only answer.

“Whether you attack because of some allegiance to Them, fear of the unknown, or some other factor, know that you cannot defeat me, nor end the Yi City’s wish for freedom. Goodbye.”

Her figure vanished alongside a burst of thunder, her movement covered by the darkness of the Binder of the Dark amongst some other phenomena, but to the observers, there was nothing but ease in her movements – in the case of those that could see her movements at all, but most had no chance to do so as her body far surpassed that of the most intense body cultivators out there.

The member of the Chen family, having failed to slay her, sheathed his blade and returned to the circle, glaring at everyone else in the area but not taking any action against them, not that it stopped every single one of them from preparing some defensive method.

Although not a single one of them could be certain about the validity of the words spoken by the strange woman surrounded in darkness, they understood that even if only fragments of truth were contained within them, they would have all learnt something incredibly vital and important that had likely been hidden for a very long time. Chen Jushu and the member of the Ning family in particular had the greatest suspicion that it was all accurate, for they had indeed encountered figures that seemed humble and insignificant but had great influence over the leadership of the family and district.

Everyone else primarily latched on to her mentions of stagnation and decline caused by the mysterious, unnamed group, for they were all sufficiently skilled in a field to know that it, and many others, had not grown despite the number of impressive minds that must have existed throughout history, before and after the Master of Yi City.

Some had considered it to be some unfortunate coincidence, others thought that it was a plot or conspiracy of some kind, but if there indeed were others that were as powerful, if not more so, than the Great Aberrant and had control over the majority of Yi City, it would likely be incredibly easy for them to do whatever they liked, in whatever field they liked, and either appease the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the districts with exclusive access to greater techniques, or otherwise overpower them to such an extent that no thought of rebellion is even possible.

One of the things that those with power sought the most was freedom, and the ability to do as they like. If there were any rules or laws to be imposed on them, they often wanted to know who the person imposing them was, and why they should listen to them.

The people that had gathered here had much the same thoughts, perhaps excluding the member of the Chen family that had attempted to silence Wei Yi, and thus their thoughts naturally turned towards rebellion. If these Great Families were truly what she had described them to be, harming the entire world, then would it not be just to discover them and turn against them with the full might of Yi City, reaping everything that those familiar had taken and spreading it amongst themselves?

Of course, those were the thoughts of most, as some were a little distracted by other matters. Chen Jushu and the other array master were wishing that they had brought along an empty journal or a lot of paper to note down the arrays that they had witnessed during the Mirror Plane invasion, as they could earn a lot from comprehending them fully. When they realised that they had a similar purpose in mind, after their eyes met and then simultaneously looked away towards the last remaining glowing nodes within the air, their gazes meeting once more as a result, they slowly began to walk away from the group to have a more personal chat.

Contrary to what it had looked like, Wei Yi did not leave the district immediately, but instead returned to her current residence and quickly wrote a letter to herself that made it seem as if someone close to her was in great danger, which would be great enough to prompt her to leave without alerting anybody else about the situation.

She made sure to leave every detail as vague as possible, so that if someone did have the time and energy to pursue her, they would need to travel around for quite some time to be truly sure that they would not be able to find her tracks. In order to not bother the original owner of this home, she didn’t make a mess – not that it was really possible considering how little space there was – that could have made her leaving in a hurry seem an even more plausible scenario, although it would have been rather difficult to tell either way.

The fact that the letter was supposedly left behind would likely be odd to some, but it was just a precaution to begin with. Most of her acquaintances in this district would likely not expect her to warn them ahead of time if she decided to leave, so it was just something to make it more convincing.

After that, she tracked down Min Lian, who had apparently taken part in the battle against the Great Aberrant’s Mirror Plane but had separated from the group after the fog changed and most of it had gathered on the Aberrant himself. She had also managed to get her hands on some Planar Gathering pills, which ought to allow her to break through to the third realm the second that she gets enough time to herself.

Together, they left the district the same way that they had done many times, escaping under the cover of night and the Binder of the Dark technique and heading to the north-east, past the fields of mirror layers and towards the Luo District. Neither of them could be sure whether they would see any members of the Mirror Plane Aberrations, but with their leader gone, even if the malevolent yin within their bodies does not quickly lead to their deaths, the absence of the mirror layers and the lack of a powerful leader to bestow techniques and items upon them would be almost certain to lead to their collapse in the near future, especially if the Ning District as a whole decided to retaliate against them.

Their goal would be to track down the location mentioned in Yi Yi’s map, then proceed north through the Luo District, then the Ping District, all the way until the hidden fortress that belonged to Kong Shi Meng. Before that, though, they got far enough away from the walls as to avoid any detection by spiritual perception and hid beneath the roots of a particularly tall tree.

“I shall send you into the prison realm. Cultivate there, ask Yi Shi Ming if you require protection from anything, and I shall bring you out once you are needed again,” Wei Yi said, coordinating with the spatial spirit of the prison realm to create the portal array, sending the assassin to a place near the Ascendant’s Library while she remained in the continents, as she did not want to enter the realm until she could be one hundred percent certain that the mirror shard pillar beneath the ground was something that was either safe or outright beneficial to her, as it would be quite the unfortunate fate to be harmed by her own spatial realm.

First, she returned her spiritual perception into the cave below the ground and examined the pillar, finding it to be entirely unchanged from her last visit.

It was still made from glass, it remained in the same shape as she remembered it, and the circle beneath it did not appear to be spreading out whatsoever, suggesting that the initial actions it had taken were simply to facilitate the appearance of the mirror shard pillar.

She neared it with her mind and attempted to scan it, but the moment that she came into contact with it, she felt her vision be consumed by darkness much in the same way as when she had fought with the Great Aberrant. For a few moments, there was nothing but that darkness, until it seemed to clear. Nothing about her vision actually changed, and she could still only see darkness, but she had a distinct feeling that something had occurred.

When she looked it, the answer became obvious. Somehow, she could now see her body despite seemingly remaining outside – and speaking of which, she could not sense the outside world, although she was still distinctly certain that she had remained within the Planar Continents and had not been transported into the prison realm.

‘This place seems familiar, somehow… I appear to be standing on something, so there is some kind of ground here, meaning that there is also the force of gravity, amongst other things… Perhaps I may be able to illuminate my surroundings with something like Sunlight Ire-’

All of a sudden, a figure appeared before her, surrounded by bright light for several lengthy moments before it solidified into… her. This figure had the same crimson hair, the same tanned skin, an identical build and even the same clothing, with the only difference being the eyes that were instead solid globes of raw white energy, akin to two miniature stars trapped within the eye sockets of her skull, illuminating the darkness on their own and showing that, truly, there was nothing here but them.

Wei Yi would have tried to speak to this figure, but before she had the opportunity to do so, it moved into the position required to charge up Sunlight Ire, with bright rays of light emerging from her and striking the ground in a large circle, drawing lines of sunlight on the surface of the dark as it appeared unable to pierce it.

The technique appeared to be aimed at her, so her body instinctively retaliated with the same technique, assuming that this was some replica of herself that would not be able to overpower her.

However, what she saw was contrary to this, as the technique used by her foe was not just executed with clear familiarity, but it appeared to be more advanced and refined than her own path, charging more quickly and clearly containing more power than her own attack would.

‘This is…’