V3C70: Quiet in the Prison Realm

If she had been asked whether she thought that she would successfully awake the next day, or at any point after the injuries that she had sustained, she wouldn’t be capable of answering the question with certainty.

Naturally, she would have preferred to survive, and she did think that her body was capable of enduring far worse things, but she had just pushed herself far too much without properly allowing for recovery. Had there been no chance of pursuit, and had she not gotten on the bad side of someone in the sixth realm, she would have stopped far earlier and did her best to heal the vital parts of the body, but she deemed that to be too much of a risk back then and certainly paid the price.

For that reason, she was rather pleasantly surprised when she found herself within her mental domain, waking there first, as usual. She was still uncertain as to why this tended to be the pattern for her recovery from unconsciousness caused by excess exhaustion, but it was especially useful now that the mental domain was united with the Kong Prison Realm.

In the past, if she wanted to make use of her time in the mental world, she could only explore the strange development that would occur whenever she underwent this kind of experience, such as her techniques advancing, the anchor condensing, or something else of the sort, but now that it and the prison realm were brought together, she could speak with Yi Shi Ming, address the people of Beast’s Rest and Sanctuary, and, seeing as her physical form appeared to be projected due to her thought, even wander around the realm with little effort. Frankly, it was probably easier than walking around regularly, as she needed to expend nothing but the boundless mental energy that she possessed while within her mental realm and could freely move herself around without needing to physically act at all.

‘Since I’ll be here a while, I should make use of the time to resolve a few more loose ends that I have been a little too busy to handle,’ she decided, leaving the library and heading towards Beast’s Rest.

There, as Yi Shi Ming had informed her several times in the past, Senior Yi Yi was residing beside the great array dome that surrounded the city, focusing on understanding it without having completed the necessary preparation for it.

“Senior, have you had anything to drink or eat yet?”

“Hm? Who’re you?” he did not turn to her, nor did he attempt to scan her with spiritual perception, showing that he barely even cared about her.

“The person that put you into this place, old man. Also, how long are you going to spend on something like this without taking any time to consider how killing intent works?” she quickly became less courteous, “Furthermore, are you trying to break this dome, or are you accidentally weakening its foundations?”

“And what do you know?”

“I put this thing up, you idiot. Are you seriously incapable of recognising my voice, or have you hurt your head at some point?”

“You did…” he finally turned to her and looked her up and down several times, before finally saying, “Oh, it’s you. I had not recognised your voice at all, and you don’t look much like yourself either. Wei Yi, right?”

“Yes, although you don’t need to lie that you were looking at me. I can feel spiritual perception.”

“I looked at you just now, so that should count,” Senior Yi Yi stated, “I have been unable to bypass the barrier so far, so I have been working to break it.”

“… Please tell me that you’re joking… No? Really? You can’t possibly tell me that you have been unable to figure out that all this thing does is keep energy in, without affecting human travel unless it is activated? You are an array master, are you not? This can’t possibly be that much more advanced than the kinds of things that you yourself have been able to make, especially seeing as this is no higher than a four-star array,” Wei Yi questioned.

He looked at her incredulously, then reached out with one hand and tried to touch the barrier. When his finger was on the very surface of the dome, it continued onwards, passing through without any trouble when he slightly misjudged the distance between him and the barrier.

When that much passed through, he pushed the rest of his hand through, then rose and walked through it all the way.

“Huh. That’s surprising.”

“Your inability to perceive that was surprising. I am frankly rather concerned about giving you any freedom when it comes to messing around with arrays, as you might think that you are setting up something protective when you are instead creating a killing array to end all of us in a single go,” she muttered.

He shrugged, turning around and examining her for a few moments, stating after a brief pause, “You seem to be floating above the ground right now.”

As odd as the switch in topic was, a quick glance down confirmed that while she was indeed at the height that she had gotten used to due to wearing the high heeled boots, her mental self was not wearing them, resulting in her floating a short distance from the ground in order to maintain the same height. It was nothing extreme, and if she was to walk through a large crowd most would likely not notice a thing, but it was still curious to observe the way in which her mind thought of herself.

Her mental image of herself was still dressed in the unaltered Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival, still had her usual hair and eyes, and naturally had none of the injuries that it had accumulated in reality. With bare feet and hands, lighter skin and a younger face and voice, her mental image shared a lot of similarities with what she had looked like some time ago, while she had still been trapped inside the Kong Prison Realm without the knowledge of the true name of the Master of Yi City, of the identity or even presence of the spatial spirit Yi Shi Ming, amongst other things.

It was something that she could probably change with a single conscious thought, but she decided to keep it, at least for now. As she was, her state was presentable, and the fact that she floated slightly should make it obvious to most that she was not in the prison realm fully.

After all, it would be rather awkward if someone mistakenly assumed that she was present there in the physical sense, only for her not to be.

“I’m sure it’s fine. Don’t try to change the topic, alright?”

“I am not doing that. While I can now see that the array does indeed function as you have described it, that was rather difficult to confirm given the fact that it does not contain a drop of planar energy anywhere within its structure. You see, part of the uniqueness of my methods, as well as the reason for my inability to create four-star arrays at the same level as the rest of my work, is that I have a different method of viewing and constructing arrays-”

“A method that is less beneficial when planar energy is lacking, and also the reason why you had to prompt your descendants to create a solution to it. It seems that they have had some luck.”

“Indeed.”

“It also seems to me that you’ve opened up to me, at least when it comes to your techniques. Has speaking with some of the Remnants of Yin convinced you that I am not with the Greats, or that I have the intention of acting against them?”

“They have… Goodness, that anchor of yours seems to have broken.”

“… Have you actually gone senile, old man?”

“No, no, I am perfectly fine. I had just failed to pay attention some time back, when it seemed to have exploded,” Senior Yi Yi said, bringing his attention away from the sun-like Endless Monolith in the distance, “You appear to be a reasonably powerful individual, you have the trust of my past allies, and you have carried on the legacy of my descendants. I shall work alongside you, for now.”

“Good. I’ll give you some knowledge and information later, but for now, I have to speak with a few others. Get yourself settled in at Beast’s Rest, and I will get to you later.”

He nodded, and walked off, travelling towards the city that had grown enough to only begin within a few metres of the great dome, leaving her to ponder who to speak with next. So far as she could tell, most of the prison realm’s population was doing fine for the moment, not requiring her immediate attention, save for Min Lian, so she moved herself over to the assassin’s position, finding her kneeling in front of her desk in the office beneath Beast’s Rest.

To her credit, the assassin noticed her presence almost immediately, lowering her head further.

“I apologise for disrupting your space, Master. I have kept myself in a state and place where I would be most able to accept your orders at any time.”

“You… you really didn’t have to do that, you know. You could just go around, do what you like, train, eat, cultivate… well, you have done that last thing, judging by your current cultivation, but you do not need to spend your every moment waiting for me,” Wei Yi said, then added, “In fact, I may even command you against it.”

“Master, as you have stated in the past, I do not require sustenance, nor do I need entertainment.”

“Min Lian, don’t force me to do this. I know that you have an interest in staying near me, which I do appreciate, but I am going to have to insist that we have a proper talk about this later – for the moment, I am not certain how long I will be able to remain before I awake. Otherwise, I will give binding orders, and I will not listen to a single thing you say,” she threatened, “Furthermore, you don’t wish to anger the leadership of the Scorching Blades, do you?”

“About that… Master, do you recall the time that you had absorbed the storm walls of this prison realm?”

“Did I unveil some new memories?”

“For a brief moment, when all of the killing intent in the air receded, I felt my mind change. I was unable to identify the exact nature of it, but I was distinctly aware that some part of my awareness had changed. As part of this change, I realised that I had indeed recalled something… and that I was no longer bound.”

Although she had guessed that something of the sort was possible, it was still rather surprising, until she confirmed that Min Lian did not appear to be shifting from her position.

“Since you were still acting the same way before and after this reveal, I suspect that you do not intend to turn against me now that you have regained your freedom and have announced it. In that case, what is it that you want?”

The assassin – former assassin, theoretically – hesitated uncharacteristically, “You believed that you had replaced some memory of one of my masters with yourself, right?”

“That was my assumption.”

“You might have also noticed that I sometimes behaved… oddly around you. I would take great care in ensuring that you weren’t harmed, I tried to remain in your vicinity as much as possible, and I tried to do as much as possible for you even when… well, even when there was no point to it, due to our combined conditions.”

“If you’re going to declare your love for me, or something of the sort, you should understand my stance already.”

“No, I would never do that. It would be too much of a strain upon you, and I couldn’t deserve it…” Min Lian stated, finally raising her head, “Rather, I feel like I… need you. I don’t understand it, not after all the years I had faked many of my actions, but I just want to be near to you, to help you, to assist you.”

Their eyes met, and the assassin looked as if she was on the verge of crying, although the physique of a hatred avatar could not produce tears in the same way as the body of a human. It wasn’t this that was most shocking, but the sheer amount of emotion that seemed to finally seep into the world, being just a step away from manifesting into a visible aura.

A mixture of all kinds of thoughts and emotions were contained within her eyes, some joyful and others far less so, but all of them changed her face immensely despite Min Lian continuing to control every other part of her expression and body. From an ancient assassin turned hatred avatar that could never express more a false, rigid imitation of human reaction, that simple thing made her seem as if she had become a different person, perhaps a poor girl that had been tormented for far too long without the ability to showcase that to anyone until now.

In a way, that was an accurate description. Most assassin organisations did select recruits at a young age, since it would be easier to train them to be fully obedient regardless of the method used, so with all of the assassin training brought to the back of the mind, all that would be left would be her youth.

“I understand that all of this is unreasonable. You cannot make it more obvious that you are travelling through the world, nor where you are going, and having someone that can change their face less easily than you would be to your detriment. So, instead, I remain here, and wait for you to return. To see you, at least for a moment,” Min Lian admitted, “If I had human senses, perhaps I would like to feel your warmth, or take in your smell, or something even more extreme, but I cannot.”

“… Sorry. That was most certainly not what I had intended.”

“I know that. Actually, it… it is nice to have some kind of yearning. It hurts, a lot, but… it’s pleasant to be able to feel. To truly feel, not to just pretend. That this is even possible is excellent, but… Please, once you can open the gates, have a base where we have some semblance of safety… could you let me stay around you? As a guard, servant, maid, slave… I don’t care. Just allow me to see you.”

“I had no intentions of doing otherwise, either when you became powerful enough, or when I could allow freedom for the others, as well…” Wei Yi stated, biting her lip while she thought for a moment, “I tend to spend some time near the otherworldly demons in the store on the ground, so, instead of waiting for some assignment, could you stay there? You can choose what you do, if you like, but I think you may benefit from just spending some time near others. They don’t know that you’re an assassin, so you could even talk to them normally, and they won’t have a clue.”

“Master, why would I…”

“As you know, I cannot do much for the moment, especially when I am only here in spirit but not physically, but since you possess some of the emotions that have been suppressed for too long, I think you it would help to have the freedom to express them to others.”

Min Lian gave it some thought, “Perhaps. I wouldn’t want to become like the stalker guard that keeps trying to observe you, however.”

“You’ve seen her too? I’m letting her do it, mostly because she seems strangely good at knowing where to look and at what time, so she might prove to be a good scout at a later point, and since it seems that people without some form of mental trauma do not make it into the prison realm,” Wei Yi glanced down at her mental self’s hand, “Don’t worry. Judging by the way you speak to me, you intend to remain loyal, right?”

“Yes, Master. There would be no point for me to act against you, no matter how. Even if it was possible to undo whatever it was that had caused this, I am not sure that it would truly be gone, since I have spent quite a long time with these thoughts. As such, I should do my best to remain with you.”

“In that case… Is the Scorching Blades’ method of control also gone?”

“It appears to be.”

“Well then, I might be a little more able to let you out into the Planar Continents. I was rather concerned that if you met with someone from your former assassin organisation, you would be brought under their control and made to share everything that you knew, but if that is not the case, it should be safe for you to travel with more freedom,” Wei Yi said, although she did not make a single statement nor believe a single word without the confirmation of its validity through a strand of spiritual will within the assassin’s neck. For someone that had the ability to trick almost anyone with her acting, it would be risky not to assess every word after blatant confirmation that she had broken free of her control.

Frankly, Wei Yi would love to not need to do such a thing, and to have the ability to believe every word spoken by every person, but that was simply impossible, likely even if she reached the peak of the Dao of Law and was able to impose her will onto the entirety of the Planar Continents, and anything within them. Rather than humans being inclined to lie, it was more that they saw many reasons for it.

Some lied in an attempt to benefit others, to prevent harm or to improve someone’s wellbeing, although they would not always succeed quite as they hoped to. Others would lie for malicious purposes, hoping to profit from someone’s misfortune or otherwise create pain for another, perhaps out of vengeance or just to satisfy themselves or someone else. Then there were those that lied for more neutral purposes, seeking to avoid unnecessary trouble or otherwise conceal something that is of no relevance to others, but that would not be helpful if commonly known.

Essentially, to stop people from lying would require her to alter the very nature of humanity and the world, removing all freedom from them in order to prevent the very possibility of lying, or to make it entirely unnecessary.

As much as that might make conversation easier, it was something that she was neither able to do, nor prepared to do, not unless she was able to conclude with one hundred percent certainty that it would be a good change to the world… and even then, she would prefer not to mess with such intricate things no matter how much power was granted to her. Her Dao of Law would merely prevent the worst examples of human nature from being permitted to succeed and propagate at its peak, and even that would have been something that she would have preferred not to be forced into doing, so to go further would be entirely beyond her.

However, Min Lian did not appear to be lying, so she similarly replied with some true options.

“I will await that eagerly… and will attempt to locate the otherworldly demons that you had mentioned, since I do not believe that I have had the misfortune of meeting them,” the assassin said, although she still didn’t rise from the ground, “Before I go, may I know how you would prefer me to speak to you? Should I keep my polite address, or…”

“You may do as you like, although do know that if you decide to continue addressing me as Master, I shall likely continue to order you around as if I am one.”

A smile that would typically never appear on Min Lian’s face suddenly adorned it brightly and proudly.

“In that case, Master, I shall ensure that it is well known that my life belongs to you,” she declared, getting up and delivering a full bow to her, “If it would please Master, I may be available for you to resolve the day’s stress with me.”

Before Wei Yi was able to react, the assassin ran off, taking one last look at her as she went out of the office with a smile.

It took the Ascendant some time to understand exactly what she saw, especially since she wasn’t even certain whether her previous judgement of the situation was mistaken, or if Min Lian had been joking or otherwise acting, only to conclude – with some uncertainty still remaining – that the assassin may very well have begun suggesting these kinds of things some time ago out of some actual desire to remain with her in that way.

This much was… not uncommon within the prison realm, to say the least, especially in some of the particularly kinky brothels that were run by Meng Chu, and the assassin did not seem to be asking her for anything more than that particular kind of relationship, so she supposed that she could give it to her.

As she had learnt quite a number of times, she was indeed fond of being in charge, dominating others, even if it was just in a minor way… but there was always the concern that Min Lian was not quite in her right mind, besides the matter that she had been trained for many years in an environment that did not permit true emotion. At the moment, due to the unexpected outcome of an action taken many years ago, her mind turned out to have been warped in some other manner, which she was far less pleased with exploiting than her previous assassin training.

‘However, do I honestly believe that it will ever be possible to fix this? Even if her mind was to be erased and reborn anew, experiencing a different life where she suffered from neither the assassin training nor my attempt to restore her memories, would that be anything close to her true self? What is someone’s true state? I don’t think I can confidently answer any of those, so…’ Wei Yi shrugged, ‘I guess I don’t have any particular desire to sleep with her, nor use her in any manner, so its fine for now.’

She wasn’t really interested in pondering these kinds of things now, especially not while she had the ability to easily and seamlessly travel throughout the prison realm and commune with whoever she wished, however she wished, while she might very well be unable to walk anywhere far in the Planar Continents the moment that she awakes and would thus have a lot of time for pondering.

Thus, she instead descended to Meng Chu’s office, but that place, as well as many of his typical gathering spots, was empty, but she was able to perceive something that had remained mostly unseen for her in the past. In the room where he had seen a strange phenomenon after acquiring his physique, she had previously only been able to see a slight trace of what he was mentioning and hadn’t gone back to check it for some time. However, now, perhaps as a result of acquiring a series of yin-type physiques, or perhaps due to her mental form, or some other reason entirely, she could see exactly what he had seen back then.

It was a pillar of energy, acting a little like an unusually tall flame surging from some invisible bonfire, although it was too thin, tall and smooth to truly be described as fire.

The strangest thing about it, however, was the speed at which it moved. When the world was progressing at its regular pace, matching the passage of time within the Planar Continents, the flame appeared to move at an incredibly slow pace, as if it had been captured and then displayed at half of its regular speed, but the moment that she made the pace of the prison realm match its original state, with half an hour within passing for every minute without, it appeared to wildly accelerate.

This was certainly no coincidence, either, as she was able to flip the metaphorical switch over and over again to observe the flame change each time that she did, although little else changed about it with every flip back and forth.

“Ah, there you… are you floating?”

“I am, but it’s no big deal, so don’t worry. Where have you been, and have you noticed the changes to the point of convergence before?” she asked without turning around.

“How is that… forget it. I was out looking at Sanctuary, taking in the sights while taking a break. It is quite different from Beast’s Rest, even with all of the work put into it, and it is always quite pleasant to observe,” Meng Chu answered, “As for the point of convergence, I had noticed it, and was able to guess roughly when you’d appear within the prison realm, although you didn’t always visit.”

“Oh, good, glad that you paid attention. Also nice that you haven’t told me about it, although I can understand that you might think it to be something unnecessary,” she commented, choosing to ignore whatever he might have had to say as she continued, “Anyway, things are not as good as they can be for the moment, so I’m just warning you that I might not be able to come back in a while. You don’t do much already, so just don’t panic and don’t let anyone else panic, alright? When I am free to return, I will tell you, and anyone else that matters.”

“Is that connected to your hovering?”

“You see, I’m not actually here. Rather, it’s my mental projection of myself, which must have adapted to my regular height but not taken into account the different clothing that I have begun to wear.”

“It’s quite impressive. I couldn’t tell any difference between you and your regular state, save for the floating thing, of course,” Meng Chu said, “If you’d placed yourself on the ground, you could have gone into one of my brothels without anyone being any the wiser.”

“Nah, most people there are more attentive than you. Anyway…”

There was a brief pause, during which both thought of something to say to the other. However, before either one was able to speak up, Wei Yi’s form suddenly quivered, and she felt a certain pull upon herself that was not physical, but spiritual in nature. It did not move her form, but she was able to sense herself being pulled outside of the prison realm, slowly at first, but if she was to force herself to remain for any longer, it would become overwhelming quickly.

“Well, shit. It seems that I’ve got to go, so seen you soon… hopefully. If I don’t return any time soon… Eh, unlikely. Goodbye!”

Her form vanished from the prison realm before Meng Chu could say anything.