V3C48: Totally not Conspicuous

Since she wasn’t going to change her answer, Wei Yi wouldn’t press on that particular manner, but there were plenty of other questions she could easily ask that would be far more revealing.

“So, tell me, Bao Changda, which one of the Monolithic Towers do you hail from?”

“Towers… eh, well, which ones are in the area?” the woman asked back, confused but not as much as any normal person should have been.

“Sheesh, don’t you even know this much? To the north is the Phoenix Tower, to the south is the Dragon Tower, to the east is the Black Turtle Tower, and to the east is the Belligerent Mutt Tower.”

“That’s quite the naming scheme…”

“I hope you’re not from that last Monolithic Tower, or else you’re not going to see any kindness from me or anyone else in the area. People from there are absolute dicks in all the worst possible ways, and I am almost sure most people from there hate themselves just as much as others from all of the other towers. Even if you are from there, just make sure to lie and claim that from elsewhere, since most will prefer outright lying to the truth.”

“No, I am absolutely not from there! I am from the… the Phoenix Tower!”

“Oh, really? I’ve always wanted to go, but never had the opportunity to do so. Tell me, what do the Tear Pools of Absolute Sexual Satisfaction feel like?” Wei Yi continued asking, her intention being to go as far as it even possible to go to be absolutely certain of the identity of this woman before acting.

“W-what? That…” Bao Changda looked absolutely terrified at the notion, although she probably thought that she was hiding this expression quite well, “I… I’ve never been there…”

“Oh, that’s too bad. Which realm are you in? If you haven’t yet reached the third realm, then it would only be natural for you to never have experienced the most famous attraction of the Phoenix Monolithic Tower, seeing as it isn’t something that can be endured before you reach that realm,” she claimed, rather curious to see where the woman’s imagination could take her.

“I am… well, I’m rather forgetful, so could you just-”

“You don’t even remember what the realms of cultivation are? What a terrible excuse of a cultivator you are. Naturally, the first realm is the Harmonious Congregation realm, then the Polarizing Expansion, then the Entropic Propulsion realm. Come on, you have to know something this basic, don’t you?”

“Of course I do! I am… in the Entropic Propulsion realm, yes, and… so are you? How many realms are there?”

“It’s four, you dummy.”

“Yes, I knew that, I was just making sure. You know, it never hurts to be absolutely certain, right?” Bao Changda said, a hopeful smile on her face that clearly conveyed her hopes that Wei Yi would just accept this and let her go.

“Mhm.”

“So… can you stop holding my hand, please?”

“Nope. There’s something that we will need to do first,” she said, drawing closer to the woman until their faces almost touched.

“A-Are you going to seduce me with your succubus powers?”

“No, I’m going to kidnap you.”

“Oh, then that’s fine.”

‘I don’t think that she was even listening to me after I said no. Why is she so concerned with this, anyway? From what I know of the other world that all otherworldly demons seem to hail from, their culture is very permissive of… everything, really. Not sure how there are still any of them left, but perhaps they have some otherworldly gifts over there as well, but most of them are unaware of this,’ Wei Yi pondered as she willed the prison realm gateway to appear beneath them.

“What is that? What exactly are you doing?”

“Didn’t you hear what I said? I am currently kidnapping you, and you do not have any choice in this situation. Furthermore, it’s not like you have anyone to speak to, right?”

“How do you-”

Before she was able to finish her question, she and Wei Yi disappeared from the Planar Continents, the gateway to the prison realm fading away from the ground in a matter of seconds, soon removing any trace of their presence.

Within the skies of the prison realm, the glow of the five-sided anchor in the centre of the realm, as well as violet light that constantly surged from its centre, illuminated the land and brought clarity to the people of the realm. The planar energy around them, that they had only recently remembered and became acquainted with, had grown thicker as of late, and their abilities slowly rose alongside it.

It had encouraged them to cultivate as much as possible, as they wanted to be capable of matching up to the people on the outside with great haste and actually engage in battle against the Greats as their ancestors had done. As a result, they remained within their homes as the new master of the prison realm returned to the centre of the realm, as always, appearing beside the eternally untouchable Ascendant’s Library and beneath the towering anchor.

When they entered the spatial realm, Wei Yi let go of the other woman, who appeared ready to sever her own arm to get away, although whether she’d actually do that was something that she doubted.

“Where is this? What happened?”

“It’s the ancient Kong Prison Realm, although it is currently home to a group that aims to defeat the Great Families. However, you probably know even less about the things that I’m saying than the average person, right?”

“I-…”

“I did say that I kidnapped you, but we can speak on amicable terms, and with great honesty, so long as you do so first. Now, tell me, Bao Changda: are you from this world?”

The woman didn’t answer immediately, instead looking around anxiously as if searching for something of interest to her, but no matter what she looked at, nothing appeared to encourage or relieve her. It did, however, expose a notable quantity about her, especially since it gave Wei Yi an easy opportunity to confirm the slight tremble of the mysterious characters, as well as the presence of something within the woman’s eyes that appeared and disappeared constantly as she looked around, presumably due to some kind of interface being projected into her sight.

Before this, she did theorise whether or not this could be someone with extreme memory loss, but someone like that would be more keen to disclose their ignorance and certainly wouldn’t possess an otherworldly gift, no matter what.

“Are you going to answer, or must I do something impolite?”

“… I’m from around here…”

Wei Yi sighed, “Are you absolutely certain about that?”

“Yes!”

“Right, so you’re from that country called Antanord, or, at the very least, you speak that language. Wonderful. Thank you for your entirely unintentional cooperation.”

“You’re welcome… Eh?” her expression changed quickly, and she blurted out a few words in Antanorden.

“Do slow down. I don’t have much practise with that language, so I can’t do much if I don’t consider the entirety of the sentence ahead of time,” she admitted, holding up her hand to mentally bring out her dictionary of Antanorden, “Alright, I asked you a question in a different language, being lucky enough to guess the right one on the first try, and I was able to do that by knowing someone else who knows how to speak it. Does that answer your question?”

“Yes, that’s right… You’re scary…”

“I get that a lot, although not always in words. Now, will you cooperate?”

“I… Wait, if we’re being honest with one another, then you have to be honest with me as well!” Bao Changda demanded, momentarily gaining a strange degree of boldness that lit up her entire figure.

“Sure, I can do that. What do you want to know?”

“Are you a succubus?”

“… No. I am not. I have never been. I have no relations to succubi that I know of. I have no knowledge of any groups of succubi, nor do I even know whether they are real or myths based around demons or devils that the observer found abnormally attractive and thus misconstrued it as some kind of miraculous effect upon them. I have no intention of contacting any of them at the moment, although that may change the moment that I am able to meet one and confirm their abilities and their typical allegiances,” Wei Yi stated, going through every scenario possible so that she wouldn’t have the excuse to continue making stupid assumptions, “Furthermore, I have done nothing to you besides speak to you. If that is enough for you to feel something, then that is your fault, not mine.”

“But… No! I have been affected by something when I appeared here, that must be it!” the woman asserted, “I, Aimi Miyu, have always been straight!”

“Aimi… Miyu… Interesting. Listen, why don’t you talk to someone from the same world as you? Perhaps you two might get along better?” she offered as she pointed to the great dome in the distance, “I can bring you to him, though you shouldn’t distract him if he’s busy.”

“Yes, do that, and I will prove that I am not… well, not interested in you.”

Wei Yi did not respond, but she felt that with every single moment that she had to spend near this woman, her very mind was being besieged far more than any previous mental attack had been able to. She was almost certain that this Antanorden woman wasn’t doing this intentionally, since she was rather aloof and ignorant, from everything that she had displayed so far, but it was still painful to deal with her and so it seemed like a better idea to pass it along to someone more familiar with the world she came from that might be better suited at handling the matter.

Her only available otherworldly demon was Fu Zan, so she naturally referred her to him, warping her over to the entrance of his workshop the moment that she finished muttering something stupid under her breath.

‘Yi Shi Ming, had Kong Shi Meng ever acted like that?’

“Not so far as I recall,” the spatial spirit appeared beside her, also frowning at the interactions that she had just witnessed, “He was always good at controlling himself, albeit less good than he had thought. I believe that this is some form of insecurity or shame. Perhaps she has convinced herself that something about her response to your current appearance is improper and is trying to dissuade herself from feeling that way.”

“What’s wrong with my current appearance?”

“Have you not looked at yourself since your breakthrough? I am unfamiliar with the path of physique energy cultivation, especially so since you are one of the few taking it beyond the initial few realms, but it does improve your body and appearance with frightening regularity.”

She hadn’t done this, occupied as she was with confirming her physique abilities and their growth, so she did that this very moment.

It was then that she realised why she encountered yet another overly flustered girl, with the first one currently sitting some distance away hoping to get another glimpse of her while being too afraid to approach. Her eyes retained their wonderful silver, the depth and vibrance of the colour becoming even greater, but they were the least noticeable factor despite the amount of attention they often drew.

Her skin had similarly maintained the colour of the Yin-Yang Physique and became smoother, more pleasant and generally far more attractive to behold, while her hair seemed to be even more lustrous and soft, tempting her to keep at least one hand upon it at all times to be able to stroke it and enjoy the texture and feeling of it, although she suspected that it would be even more difficult to damage or change it in any way. Such changes were not entirely unexpected from the development of a physique, but after a moment of pondering, she realised that there was a very plausible reason for why these changes showed themselves now – her meeting with Mo Zhouquan.

Besides a few other matters, she had realised a few things about her own preferences in terms of appearance and aesthetics, as well as some optimisations she could make to her own biology, so it was very likely that the properties of physique cultivation led to these affecting her development.

The only problem – aside from the fact that she would eventually develop some form of narcissism through having to check herself out constantly – was that this was making her even less conspicuous than her appearance had already been. With every single physical improvement, her appearance caught more attention and would be even more likely to belong to some ordinary figure that didn’t deserve attention. Furthermore, even if she somehow evaded attention as a person of interest in terms of strength or value, there was no chance of some men and women not seeing her and falling for her in the exact same way that the guard from the arena and this Aimi Miyu had.

Even if that caused her some benefits, she was aware that some were rather aggressive in their pursuits, and could stoop to some terrible things to claim some people without realising that the people they were interested in had a will of their own, a little like Yi Jiazhi had charmed many people through his techniques, expect the truly dedicated would do far, far worse things.

Although she was mostly immune to techniques that didn’t create entirely new thoughts and desires, she still didn’t wish to catch such forms of attention.

‘At the very least I had not developed enormous breasts in my teenage years. If I had, I would have literally everything someone might look for in a woman’s appearance, and then I would need to deal with a constant wave of overly annoying individuals trying to get into my non-existent pants,’ Wei Yi thought, glancing over in the direction of the spying guard and then over at Fu Zan’s store, ‘Maybe it’s time to finally get rid of that particular poor habit.’

The guard had managed to be near the area where she met with the otherworldly demon, and she had been spending an excessive amount of her time following Wei Yi. Seeing as the strange obsession wasn’t fading even after a few days, Wei Yi decided that it might be best to bring her along when she and Miyu were brought into the Kong Prison Realm. Judging by the fact that the guard had yet to visibly realise that they were in a spatial realm separate from the main world, this didn’t appear to be a big problem for the guard.

Naturally, she first set up an array to lead the woman spying on her away first, then brought her spiritual perception into the store, looking through a few items before glancing at the two otherworldly demons.

Fortunately for her, she wouldn’t need to disturb the people there, as she understood the exact proportions of her own body quite well and knew that he already had something of interest to her, which she promptly ‘borrowed’ the moment that neither of them were looking in their direction, and put on once they were in her hands.

This item had quite a few unnecessary descriptors applied to it by Fu Zan, presumably taking all of them from his world, but she and most of those that actually purchased anything in his store would simply know them as black lace panties. They were made from some of the various metallic materials that Wei Yi had been consistently bringing into the prison realm since the creation of the silver-leaf energy, and so managed to retain the comfort and thinness of the original product without being highly vulnerable to all forms of damage. The originals were rather risky to wear if one wanted to retain them after a tough fight where they would endure an attack that surrounded and consumed them entirely.

After a moment of consideration, she also borrowed a similar bra and something that he called ‘shorts’ to cover herself up further, as the absence of clothing beneath the robes while both her feet and arms were covered made her seem and feel rather odd.

There did not appear to be anything else within his store that was of any interest to her at the moment, so she made sure that none of her new purchases would hinder her movements before calling upon Yi Shi Ming to initiate her exit from this realm, as she wanted to be back and ready to participate in whatever missions Luo Lia Kun would be able to present her with once she finally has the opportunity to do so without her running off or pretending not to hear her.

As soon as she appeared within the Planar Continents once more, she confirmed that no new individuals of note appeared within her enormous range of spiritual perception and began to run back.

‘It seems that my fears have come true far earlier than I would have ever assumed or hoped,’ Wei Yi remarked to herself, finding that the further into the district she proceeded, the more eyes were upon her, not due to her rather odd outfit, nor due to some immense feat of physical might, not even due to her fame spreading across the Luo District as being someone with great power, but instead due to her appearance and features.

Previously, her clawed gauntlets, high heels and strength would usually attract the attention of most, preventing them from noticing her appearance, but now it had overpowered all of those factors, which made her understand incredibly well why Aimi Miyu had accused her of being a succubus.

With this much attention on her after this particular breakthrough, she wouldn’t even be surprised if even her sweat would be sweet, or something of the sort. She had been thinking of tastes and, more importantly, smells as of late, due to the constant presence of the horrid bed of corruption beneath her when she had to pretend to sleep, as an ordinary cultivator might, so it wouldn’t be surprising in the slightest, although it would presumably follow the same trend as the rest of her body and instead become more appealing without changing its very nature.

In short, it was probably another source of attention that she really did not want or need.

‘Then this means that I need to force one of my traits to overpower the other once again, forcing them to see literally anything else as my most notable aspect,’ she concluded as she finally got close enough to the Brotherhood of Power building to be able to look into it and view the task and request board, where she looked for anyone that was nearby that she could capture.

She did not need to look for long, as she quickly noticed a figure that closely matched the picture on one of the requests that asked for the man to be delivered with minimal harm.

The person seemed to be wanted for nothing more than a simple debt, and everything about his state, cultivation and body appeared normal, so she turned towards him and practically vanished from the spot with only the faintest rumble of thunder heralding her actions.

Some people near her noticed that she disappeared, but those at her destination had no choice but to observe as a great burst of flame appeared beside one of the people walking through the streets and struck him down, a great explosion of fire throwing the others away with enough force to move them but not too powerful to inflict any harm upon them, or on the target, for that matter. He was pushed to the ground, his consciousness and vision both suffering from the sudden shock, giving him no opportunity to act.

It was only when she grabbed the man and carried him off that most of the passing audience understood what had happened.

Their gazes didn’t change immediately or completely, but that was within her expectations, ‘A single simple capture won’t make everyone believe that I am some kind of combat genius or anything of the sort, but if I manage to track down enough people near the district and catch them with as much force as I can display, then rumours will be bound to spread, and then the only ones who can spend all of their time staring will either be exceptionally confident, arrogant, or looking to get my attention.’

Before she could do that, however, she needed to look at the board of tasks in person, as it would otherwise cause some questions if she was able to catch and bring in people before ever seeing the request.

She recalled that the task to capture this poor cultivator of the first realm had been there the last time she looked at the tasks, so the moment that she ran into Luo Lia Kun at the entrance to the building, she wasn’t befuddled in the slightest and dropped the man off at her feet as casually as she greeted her.

“Hey there, vice-leader. I’ve brought one of the targets over.”

“The target… ah, yes, I remember that face. He is wanted for owing three gold coins to a tavern not too far away from this place,” the vice-leader also seemed to remember him, leaning down beside him to look into his eyes, “Are you going to give that back, or is further force necessary?”

He stared at her in horror for a few moments before reaching into his pockets and throwing three gold coins to the ground.

“There… It’s just three gold coins! You didn’t need to terrify me to death!”

“I didn’t terrify anyone. I just hit him in the face,” Wei Yi said in reply to the questioning gaze of Luo Lia Kun, “I didn’t take the task with me, but I don’t think that it prohibited hitting.”

“No, it did not. Ping Ju, in the future, do not attempt to escape paying at that particular establishment. Do you understand that?” the vice-leader asked him, and, without waiting for any kind of response, she looked to Wei Yi and said, “Could you throw him away without crippling him permanently? That should be enough for him to understand.”

She nodded and grabbed the man’s neck, lifting him with great ease before finding a suitable place with her spiritual perception and tossed him away with just enough force for him to end up right in the middle of a cool pond, where he could cool off from her earlier usage of a great fire technique to capture him quickly. It was unlikely that he would appreciate this action in that same way, but it wouldn’t do much harm to him while also giving him the opportunity to wash himself, which, judging by the hint of alcohol about him, was something that he would benefit from.

It was still more care than she should have given to his treatment, given her current façade, but it could always be passed off as an accident.

“So, you’ve returned… Have you had some success with those failed talismans, or did you uncover some kind of new physical technique?” Luo Lia Kun asked, looking over her with a great deal of focus, which fortunately lacked any semblance of the wrong kind of interest in her gaze.

“I have had some success, yes. I’ve gotten a little stronger, but I don’t think that it should be that noticeable,” Wei Yi said, immediately changing topics, “Do I need to be doing anything right now, or may I go and take on even more missions and requests to accumulate a significantly greater number of failed talismans?”

“Actually, there is something. Mo Zhouquan and Long Huang are intending to perform some tests on the twenty-ninth, and they had asked you to participate. I’m not entirely certain why, but while both of them have their odd moments, they have been rather reliable when it comes to their area of expertise,” the vice-leader explained, “I don’t think any of them actually intend to dissect you, but I will order them to stop if you are truly incapable of cooperating, or are unwilling to participate in any particular experiment.”

“You… don’t think… that any of them want to dissect me? Uh-huh.”

“Alright, that was not the best way to word that, but the point still stands. No harm, nor corruption, will come to you. Nothing permanent, that’s certain, and any temporary damage will not last longer than a few hours,” she reaffirmed.

“That makes you sound even less confident,” Wei Yi remarked, but since both of them had a chance to be connected to bloodlines which she also wanted to investigate, perhaps also incorporating the power of blood into one of the great arts that she practised, she had to use the role she currently played to her advantage and claim, “Alright, sure. Tomorrow, right?”

“Yes, tomorrow. For now, I can get you some more talismans for free, if you like.”

“Could I get a planar stone instead?”

Luo Lia Kun raised an eyebrow at what seemed to be a sudden change of mind regarding the resources that she needed, but ultimately said, “The contribution from this one task isn’t sufficient, but it can be accumulated over several tasks. In fact, I propose that we do that regardless of what you wish for. In place of the standard rewards and payments, I can give you a certain allowance of points that you can expend on services or resources of the Brotherhood of Power. We can consider the exact system later, but it will ensure that you can retrieve whatever you want, whenever you need it.”

“In that case, I’ll go and pick up some-”

“No, you’re going to rest. Again. Trust me, those two can go to some extremes, so you will need to have plenty of energy.”

Although she had some disagreement with that, Wei Yi shrugged and returned to her shared bedroom, where she found Zhi Qiu Ya on her bed, sleeping there with a cute smile on her face, as if she wasn’t in a constant struggle that could lead to a complete loss of her identity.

With nothing else to do, she decided to lie beside her and get back to scratching beside her ears.