V3C39: The Competition, Part 2

Most of the day continued on without any unusual occurrences. Luo Rongmeng won most of his battles, save for one where his opponent was in the Half-Step Active Core realm and managed to overpower both the banners and the talisman-like marks that he had embedded within himself in order to defeat him quickly, and Wei Yi did not experience a single loss, as Shi Taihao had been careful and had made sure that she wouldn’t face a single particularly powerful fighter, as a loss of another talented warrior would come at a great cost to him and his faction.

Due to the prevalence of physiques within his forces, she had been able to accumulate some physique energy, but it was nigh insignificant in comparison to her present cultivation, and was only sufficient for her to awaken some incredibly simple yang-type physique abilities within herself.

This had been within her expectations, and neither she nor Luo Lia Kun had the ability to change the day’s duels and the combatants within them, so she didn’t try to encourage the vice-leader to do anything of the sort. She believed that, after having witnessed her during training, as well as on the arena, Luo Lia Kun would very likely throw her into every difficult battle possible, which would inevitably include Luo Rongmeng, as he couldn’t be countered for a second time by the same combatant according to the rules that they had agreed to. These rules were very limited in number, and their prime intention was to prevent the duels from continuing on infinitely by forcing every combatant to only be able to face another once.

These rules were why she killed so decisively and quickly, for she would not receive a second opportunity to do so if they were brought out of the arena due to a surrender or a fatal injury.

Every now and then, she would check the minds of her foes and allies with some spiritual will threads in order to try and find some convenient secrets, tactics, or intentions, but she was not able to accumulate much besides more mental imagery of women with little to no clothing, making her ponder for a moment whether the Thunder Lord Meng Qi would have joined the Gang Hong Clan if given the chance.

After all of that was done, as the sun was setting and the first day of the duels came to a close, she and Chao Ru headed out of the arena together, with the latter leading them to a rather large structure that, according to her, was actually her home, and was not occupied by a single other individual, which Wei Yi pretended to suspect, if only because it wouldn’t be sensible to reveal the full range of her spiritual perception over something that would range from a casual friendship to a potential close but brief relationship.

Nevertheless, when they did enter, she was still quite impressed.

Immediately, through the entryway, Wei Yi was able to see a beautiful but minimal interior of wood and marble, both highly ordinary materials that still managed to impress even with the Ascendant’s Library constantly being within her mind, with most of the empty room and walls being dedicated to various training areas, conforming closely to the average image of the Chao family.

Every district and every family had its own focus, something that they were perceived to focus on over everything else, and while it was not always the case, with quite a few individuals from the Yi family avoiding fire techniques, some of those from the Chen family being quite useless at trading, many of those from the Jiang family never having even seen a medicinal herb in their entire lives, amongst other things. The Chao family was famously one that stuck to body cultivation, being one of the most likely to have been exposed to physique cultivation outside of the prison realm, and Chao Ru was no exception, her home housing countless implements, talismans, some inscriptions and even a few arrays that would assist in the goal of optimising her physical training.

The combined total of everything was so impressive for a lone person in the third realm, that Wei Yi had to question this, “Are you the heir of the Chao family, or did you accumulate all this yourself?”

“It’s all me~. I’ve had somewhat limited success with one thing, so I tried another, then another… With a balance, I seem to be doing best, but that’s still far behind anything the family would be likely to actively fund. They’re very stringent when it comes to money,” Chao Ru said, bringing her to one of the more ordinary items in the living room, “Here are a few weights, from ten to one hundred kilograms. People at the family are expected to be able to pick up the last one when approaching the peak of the third realm. I can barely lift fifty. Do you want to try?”

“Sure,” she replied, going straight for the heaviest weight and grasping it tightly with her metal-covered fingers, resulting in a quiet clang of metal. Then, as easily as a normal person might lift one kilogram, she lifted the hundred, playing around with it for a bit before putting it back.

This time, it was Chao Ru’s turn to comment, “Well, this is like running straight into Mt Tai… I’m feeling a little hot all of a sudden…”

‘The other commonly held belief, which is that the Chao family is full of muscle fetishists, must also be accurate, then. Charming,’ Wei Yi thought to herself, not being particularly surprised since Chao Ru had been feeling up her arms and abs the entire way here, “We’ll have the entire morning tomorrow, so why don’t we skip the tour and get to the fun stuff?”

“… My bedroom’s right up-” the moment that the vague indication of direction was given, she was swept up by Wei Yi and carried there, her few attempts at protests quickly becoming silent.

“Gracious sands, if she and the others keep bringing home new recruits, we’ll be just like the Gang Hong Clan, but in reverse,” Luo Lia Kun muttered to herself as she confirmed the fact that the two of them had entered Chao Ru’s home, approaching the front door and easily letting herself in, “With the way in which this Wei Yi acted, perhaps she’ll join their recruitment efforts…”

For a moment, she allowed herself a smile, as she assured herself that this was unlikely. The silly oaf must have just been giving her a casual compliment without understanding how she sounded, and without seeing what she had covered up with her hair, and there was no chance that she had used her spiritual perception, for that had to partially be affected by one’s intellect, or so she assumed until she saw the out-of-place weight on the table to her right.

One thing that she knew about Chao Ru was that she paid great attention and care to her various methods of training and exercise, so to see something so out of place, they must have indeed gotten distracted.

“For that training freak to forget something like this… Don’t tell me she’s already jumped the new girl and took her down the wrong path?” she wondered, hastening to the bedroom.

She wasn’t expecting to catch the two resting in bed together after a long day of combat, since she had gotten here quite a lot later than they would have done, almost at midnight whereas they would have been able to observe the setting sun as they journeyed from the arena to this residence, so even if they were still in the same building, they would be unlikely to be actively participating in any acts.

Normally, Luo Lia Kun wouldn’t have even bothered to come here on her own, but she believed that the matter that she had uncovered was more than important enough to barge into the residence of one of the group’s members… Although she had done so quite a few times as of late, to the point that almost every single individual in the Brotherhood of Power had added her to the list of people that would be recognised by the talisman-based lock on their front doors so that she wouldn’t need to break down or otherwise damage their residence just to enter, so perhaps she needed to reconsider her priorities in comparison to that of the Brotherhood.

‘Well, I could ask the leader if I may host a meeting to do something of the sort later, but for now, I’ll need to inform them to be careful,’ she thought, finally getting up to the top floor, where Chao Ru’s bedroom was.

For aforementioned reasons, she didn’t bother knocking or even listening in to confirm whether anyone was even in that room – not that it would be of any use considering the fact that, besides talismans, the Luo family was most proud of their ability to build almost perfectly sound-proof rooms – and just opened the door.

Somehow, she had not expected to find exactly what she did see, to the point that her rather innocent mind couldn’t even give a name to the act she was witnessing.

All she was able to understand was that Wei Yi was on top, and that Chao Ru wouldn’t be able to talk with her any time soon, not while she was between those muscular legs, her head being pressed up against the space between them by a similarly powerful hand and arm, while Wei Yi’s other hand played with her breast.

“That… has to be a new record…” Luo Lia Kun looked away quickly, her cheeks burning from the scene.

She was still able to see Wei Yi casually turn her head and address her calmly, as if she was just relaxing and not in the middle of a sexual act, “Do you want something?”

“Right… I need to speak with both of you. It’s urgent!” she declared, turning her head back towards them while keeping her eyes away by staring at the ceiling instead, “So, stop all of this right now and we-”

As if she was swatting away an annoying fly, Wei Yi waved her hand in the vague direction of the door, but her movement somehow generated an immense burst of force that slammed the door shut, the impact of which also threw Luo Lia Kun away and nearly caused her to collide with the wall beside the staircase, although she barely managed to land on her feet and prevent this fate. She felt her limbs shake for a moment, the rather steamy image that had been threatening to settle within her mind being entirely dispersed as the memories of the clawed warrior’s overwhelming might during the entirety of their practise.

For the vice-leader of a group by the name of the Brotherhood of Power, such a reaction towards the ability of one of her new subordinates seemed absurd, or at the very least unbecoming, but the feeling of being attacked with such ease by someone that should have been so much weaker than her, as well as the rather brutal, animalistic fashion in which it was done, was far too overpowering.

“M-my door-”

“If you have enough air and energy to be speaking, you’re not putting in enough effort,” she forced the woman’s lips back to their proper place and ignored her complaints. Although she made it seem like she had used only her physical strength to shut the door, she had actually applied her spiritual will to accomplish it, while the physical force that had moved more quickly was what had thrown Luo Lia Kun away. As such, the door, the frame and the walls around it were safe, for now, at least.

It had been some time since she had engaged in this style of activity, mostly due to how long she had spent each day within the Realm of Potential, so she wouldn’t allow it to be interrupted before having the opportunity to relax for a little while.

Besides, regardless of whatever Luo Lia Kun had wanted to tell her, she wouldn’t need to do much besides unleashing a little more of her own power, as the only instance of those above the fourth realm fighting within the arena would be at the end of the second day of combat, when Luo Lia Kun and Shi Taihao would fight together to conclude the event and potentially alter the winning side, depending on how the rest of the day went. That was no reason to disturb their so-called bonding session, especially when the intake of minimal quantities of physique energy could assist the development of Chao Ru’s body, potentially lowering the risk of her sustaining any injuries as well.

‘Still, being on top is clearly my calling. This is fun~…’

Luo Lia Kun had attempted to enter a few more times, but she did not succeed and got the message that she wasn’t welcome. Since she was still adamant on delivering her warning, she decided that she would remain on that floor and make use of some of the food and drink available there, as her bedroom as on the same floor as the kitchen, amongst a few other rooms dedicated to training and exercise.

Chao Ru wasn’t the most talented when it came to planar energy, cultivation and techniques, so she had attempted to pursue the power that the Brotherhood of Power was focused on procuring through training her body, rather than any other form of attainment. However, the majority of the Brotherhood did not practise the same methods, and thus her extensive setup wasn’t of any interest to them or Luo Lia Kun, who had chosen to specialise in her family’s talisman arts and planar construct marks.

‘She doesn’t keep anything that doesn’t taste like sand or paper, except…’ she dove into one particular cupboard and removed most of the things there in order to uncover a dark glass bottle, which she removed and opened, smelling the contents with a silly grin, ‘this wine! I don’t know how she does it, but she’s got the nose for the absolute best!’

The training-obsessed woman never drank the aforementioned wine, so after a few members of the Brotherhood of Power had attempted to ‘borrow’ it without permission, Chao Ru had simply decided to let them have it, so long as they drank in moderation.

Most of them had pretended that they didn’t hear the second part of her statement.

Luo Lia Kun poured the deep red drink into a simple glass and took her time in tasting the crimson fluid, sipping a small quantity of it and letting it sit within her mouth, delighting in the complex taste of the wine and consuming it as slowly as she possibly could. She knew that she could wait there for a while, depending on the two women’s stamina, so there was no good reason to rush herself.

After a significant length of time that nearly made her consider whether she should expand her extremely limited understanding of sex, which had to be no less than half an hour and possibly as much as a full hour according to her somewhat tipsy mind, a figure finally emerged from the bedroom.

She also headed to the kitchen, and the moment that she entered, Luo Lia Kun knew that she shouldn’t have been staring that intently.

Wei Yi had not covered herself up with anything other than her hair, which likely only obscured her breasts entirely coincidentally due to its great volume and length, and most of her sculpted form was on display. It was covered in a thin layer of glistening sweat, with occasional droplets sliding down her skin. It mixed with whatever other fluids may have gotten onto her skin, although the way in which she licked her lips as she entered the kitchen suggested that she hadn’t cleaned herself before working up a sweat again.

“You’re still here?” she asked in a tired tone, sitting down on a seat opposite Luo Lia Kun without any attempts to hide her body, instead spreading her legs as she leant back for her own comfort, “Why’re you here?”

“Uh… Is Chao Ru going to emerge any time soon?”

“Don’t think she’ll be able to walk until tomorrow morning, although I can fix that if she wants me to,” Wei Yi replied.

For a moment, she did not know how to continue, so she instead glanced down to the glass in her hand and felt enlightened. “So, I’m not sure that she has shown you around the house, but she’s got a great bottle of wine hidden in one of her cupboards. Do you want to try it?”

Wei Yi shrugged, accepting the glass and draining the rest of its contents in one go, keeping them in her mouth for a little while before swallowing with a grim expression.

“Huh. What is it supposed to taste like?”

“Personally, I think that-” she was more than ready to explain, especially since it would not require her to be looking at the naked woman, but then she realised the oddity of the question, “Wei Yi, are you unable to taste the wine?”

“I cannot. I can’t taste any food, although I can taste something like stone, or poison, or you, if you let me.”

“I’d… rather not. That’s quite weird, though. What causes this?”

“My physique, apparently. I have the Ascendant physique.”

‘Ascendant… Ascendant! That’s one of the greatest absolute physiques, written at the beginning of every list of physiques in the district! She has that, and she just openly told me?’ Luo Lia Kun’s expression froze as far too many thoughts passed through her head, especially when she saw the nude warrior sitting before her, leaning back, without any clear care in the world, ‘No wonder she is that powerful, and has such an impressive body. If I recall correctly, if she has the standard Ascendant physique, and not the Superior or Imperial Ascendant physique, then she will naturally be four times stronger than the ordinary person, so when that is combined with whatever techniques she practises… No wonder…’

“I didn’t know that this was a side effect of the physique. How long has it been since you tasted anything?”

“Hm… Twenty years at least,” she remained vague, shrugging as if it wasn’t a major concern.

‘Twenty… she only looks to be twenty years old, so… Has she never tasted a thing?’ Luo Lia Kun unknowingly arrived at a far worse conclusion than the conservative estimate had been intended to provoke, “That is, well… How about I tell you about the thing I had intended to mention initially? I wanted to warn you and Chao Ru, so I hope you’ll warn her when she is able to listen.”

“Warn us? What for? Will I be fighting against people without hearts?”

“N-No, that’s not it… You didn’t tear out Chao Ru’s heart as well, did you? We really need her, now and in the future.”

That appeared to be sufficient for even the simple-minded warrior to understand, as she looked down at Luo Lia Kun with a stare that could range between ‘I’m not that stupid’ to ‘don’t make me angry’, or perhaps both. “You’re pretty, she’s pretty, both of you are on my side, so why would I kill either of you?”

“Right. Sorry. Dumb question. No, what I meant was that everyone that you’d be fighting against, who were previously all near the peak of the third realm, either had or were in the middle of breaking through when another member of the Brotherhood of Power and I came across them,” she changed topic again, noticing that Wei Yi appeared to have a talent for entirely disrupting her typically calm state of mind seemingly unintentionally, “If most of them succeed, your competition will be in the Half-Step or full Active Core realm.”

“So what?”

“What do you mean, ‘so what’? That’s a full realm!”

“You’re in the fifth realm, right? Marked Core?”

“Yeah?”

“Didn’t my claws go through your barriers as easily a knife through air? What’s the point of worrying about it?”

“I… huh… But what about that banner man? He will be able to crush you if he manages to contain you long enough.”

“Nah. He won’t have the chance. You remember how quickly I was able to move, right? His banners won’t be down by the time I’m able to dig through his insides with my claws,” Wei Yi stated with confidence, miming the motions with her left hand.

“Right… By the heavens, you’re an absolute menace. Just to be sure, do you mind if I try to cut you a little?”

“Go ahead,” she agreed quickly, raising her hand with the palm facing upwards, her fingers spread apart slightly to allow her to do whatever it was that she intended to do.

While this rather surprised Luo Lia Kun, she was slowly beginning to think that her perspective of the world was rather limited and unclear, and that she needed to expand her understanding of the world in all kinds of ways that she had avoided up to this point, so she just took out a knife and got on with it, slashing her palm with minimal strength.

To her surprise, the knife didn’t just fail to inflict serious injury, but it failed to leave so much as a scratch, instead having no clear effect on her no matter how she looked at her hand. Whether she attempted to use spiritual perception, her eyes, or some other force, she found that there appeared to be no damage, nor any traces of natural or planar energy-based recovery that could have healed the cut before she had the chance to examine it, unless it happened so quickly that it was able to push the knife out of the wound the very moment that it was created.

“If you’re going to cut me, can’t you do it properly?” Wei Yi asked, letting her do it once more before she grabbed the kitchen knife out of her hands and brought it down onto her own hand with great force.

The first that Luo Lia Kun realised was that the knife broke – no, shattered into tiny pieces – the moment that it collided with her skin. Then, after she made sure no metal shards went anywhere near her or Wei Yi, considering the fact that the latter wasn’t wearing a thing and that there were numerous places where one wouldn’t want a knife fragment regardless of their physical endurance and resistance, she also saw no traces of a cut upon her palm once again, making her question reality itself.

“Gracious sands, what even are you made of? Is your skin made of immortal gold?”

“No, that would be horribly uncomfortable. It’s just skin, and beneath it is just blood and flesh, same as with any person.”

“You’ve not met Zhi Qiu Ya, then. Perhaps you two will get along, seeing as the two of you are similarly incredibly physically capable, and how both of you seem keen on losing as many of your clothes as possible…” Luo Lia Kun muttered the last part, uncertain whether saying that was wise when the warrior had only unclothed at an appropriate time, and would technically be fully within her right to walk around however she wanted within the home of someone that she had slept with only a few minutes prior, “By the way, would you be opposed to joining the Brotherhood of Power on a more permanent basis?”

“I dunno. You lot do contracts and stuff as well, right?”

“Yes, like most mercenary organisations, we are available for hire and will kill things for money,” she nodded, feeling almost like she was addressing a child and had to invest a significant amount of effort to not change her wording and tone as well, “Whether you’re focused on physical, planar, yang, yin or any other kind of cultivation, we can obtain plenty of resources for you so long as you’re on our side.”

“Eh, I guess there’s no harm to it. You did mention someone called Zhi Qiu Ya, though – could you tell me about her first?”

“Not before you confirm that you will join. She is a member of the Brotherhood, and I wouldn’t reveal anything unless I can be sure that you won’t go over to some random group and reveal everything to them, intentionally or otherwise.”

“Hm, you seem very insistent on this. What kinds of things could you give me?”

“Well, how about…”

She pondered the question for a moment, then presented a list of things that the Brotherhood of Power happened to be capable of obtaining with relative ease while still being incredibly useful for someone like Wei Yi, who appeared to rely heavily on her body, the clawed gauntlets, and her Ascendant physique, meaning that there was little chance of refusal.

Despite her certainty, the warrior was not only hesitant, but she also shook her head after a moment.

“Nah, I don’t think I want that. Can I have a large pile of fourth-realm failed talismans, or several piles of third-realm failed talismans?”

“Are you… sure?” Luo Lia Kun asked, as there was a major difference in price between the list that she had presented, and a large number of talismans that were thrown away by experts that were as plentiful as the people of the district, not to mention the fact that pills and training talismans were useful, whereas the very name of a failed talisman displayed just how useless it was for almost everything. If not for the energy contained within them, they would be readily torn apart and burnt in a large pile at the end of a long day of work. “If I was to spend the same amount of your request instead of my offer, I could get you quite a lot, but… I don’t want to scam you out of making progress…”

“Scam me? Why not give me a small amount to confirm that they’re useful for me, then give me the offer or the rest of the failed talismans after you’ve seen the results for yourself?” she suggested, the unusually reasonable idea not registering as such within her mind due to the combined confusion of the day.

“Yeah, sure… So, you’re in?”

“Well, based on the price you paid for me at the arena, I can assume that you thought that I was worth this much at first, but now that you’ve seen my abilities, you don’t intend to raise the price?”

“This is… What about… how about twice the initial offer, then?”

“Excellent. Good girl~…” Wei Yi suddenly rose from her seat, leaned over the table, and lightly patted Luo Lia Kun’s head in a series of actions that finally convinced the vice-leader that this was too much to deal with within a single night, and that it was best to just go along with whatever was happening until they would finally go to sleep, wherever and whenever that would finally be happening, and on whose terms that would occur.

“Uh-huh. Sure. Okay. You wanted to know about Zhi Qiu Ya?”