V4C12: A Difficult Question

Since that was what they needed to do, they did it.

Naturally, they wouldn’t apologise for suspecting the man, especially since they didn’t want to reveal that they could easily verify his angle on the information that he was providing until it would no longer be of use to them, so they instead asked a few more basic questions as to be able to confirm his identity later through regular means.

They weren’t intending to actually do so, since that would require them to go to one of the districts and risk a greater chance of recovery just for this one man, but so long as he believed that they would do so imminently, he would hopefully be discouraged from telling any lies whenever he does tire of the truth. All but Luo Lia Kun weren’t even aware that his words had already been checked, so they only knew that there was nothing suspicious enough about him so far.

Still, before he did lie to them, or otherwise did something that would make them doubt his motives, they had no choice but to let the man go and allow him to spend his time in the camp peacefully.

Some of his interrogators left at that point, since they also had their own things to do and questioning the man proved less interesting than they would have hoped. They were quickly confronted with the sounds emanating from the furthermost tent, so they couldn’t help but be grateful that those two hadn’t decided to occupy some nearby tent from where they could likely both see and hear all of the activity within. Most of the less voyeuristic members of the Ascendant’s Arbiters decided to occupy themselves with something that would be further away, while those that were either interested in, or were able to ignore the sounds, chose to remain in closer proximity for whatever they had originally wanted to do.

Luo Lia Kun and Zhi Qiu Ya decided to remain in the vicinity of Huang Yu Di, mostly to watch over him as they hadn’t thought of something to occupy themselves with yet. In a static camp, where nothing was being grown and the food was already being preserved well enough without any interaction, there wasn’t much that demanded their attention.

For a while, the man was reluctant to do much, but after seeing that he had somehow remained alive for more than twenty minutes, and that the people of the supposed Hunters of the Cosmos weren’t being actively hostile towards him, he decided that it might be safe to leave the bed and speak with them. He was still curious about their activities, of course, as well as the exact targets and methods of the Hunters of the Cosmos, who could hardly hunt the primordial deity itself due to their lacking strength and the fact that it was currently dead, as far as he knew.

He had wanted to leave the tent, but a single step outside showed that while the voices from the furthest tent did quieten down after a prolonged period of activity, it was more likely that, rather than stopping, Chao Ru’s body was simply tired of exclaiming its pleasure with such vigour.

As such, he took that one step outside, glanced towards that tent, where the flap had slightly come open as a result of the sandstorm, although it didn’t reveal anything from his perspective, then turned around and went right back inside. Two of those that had questioned him earlier were still around, and they seemed as good a people as any to ask some questions to.

Since he had already noticed that one of them, the one with a scar on her forehead being partially displayed by her parted black hair, had found the situation as awkward as he had while they were outside of the tent, he also supposed that it would be easier to speak with her while that still continued.  It was not his intention to act in a suspicious manner and prey upon the more vulnerable to gather as much knowledge as possible – which he realised he seemed to be doing as he approached the woman that had initially frightened him – so he tried to remember to act in a more natural way, without questioning constantly whether anyone around him was going to reveal their allegiance to the Chen family and pull out a knife.

In fact, for a moment he considered whether or not such behaviour might have even put him into some of the troubles that he had previously encountered, although that thought passed quickly.

He knew for a fact that the Chen family was after him. He knew for a fact that some of the people that had chosen to either betray him or deceive him were being paid by them. He also knew that they had indeed pursued him. It would only make sense if all of the encounters were of the same nature.

“Would you mind if we talked a little?” Huang Yu Di asked the two women present, “Sitting here might be better than out there, but the silence is also rather unpleasant.”

“Finally trying to get information from us, are you? Be careful with that,” Luo Lia Kun warned.

“No, I just want to talk. If you want, you could lead the conversation, or even ask me things, so long as you don’t report me to the Chen family!” he declared, both due to believing that he would still obtain something of use to him and also because he would much rather have a random talk than to prompt one of them to go out of their way to announce his presence to his pursuers.

“Quite sure about that? Fine, I’ll talk with you, but you better to continue answering truthfully if you want to remain here, safe and sound. Got that?”

After two hours, the camp was finally quiet and free of the constant sounds of two people making the most of their limited time in a bed that wasn’t even comfortable to sleep on, not to mention other activities.

They lay beside one another there, one being covered in far more than the other, embracing as they looked into one another’s eyes.

“You’re amazing…” Chao Ru muttered, feeling the results of their actions all over her body, especially where they had focused on the most, prompting her to shift one hand to her belly that was still sticky from sweat and other substances, “By the way… are you able to get women pregnant with that?”

“Not something I’ve experimented with, but it is possible,” Wei Yi admitted, “In most ways, it is no different from that of a man, and the parts that would normally permit the siring of children should still do so. I’m not sure whether I myself am able to a child, even if I wished to at this point, since the changes that happened to my body did affect those other parts, but I’ll not concern myself with that just yet… Are you worried that-”

“Worried? No! I could never be, not about that… You know, I’ve thought about having children before, after I’d already figured out that I only had an interest in women. My mother had talked about having me like it had been some kind of magical experience, although she might have meant the sex before that, and that raising me had been great… I wasn’t sure if I was going to be missing out.”

“You decided not to, and so you pleaded me to fuck you hard even though you hadn’t taken anything that size before? What a naughty girl you are,” Wei Yi said with a grin.

“Stop that… I just knew that I wanted you the moment that I saw you today, so my mind went to that, and I figured that we could…” Chao Ru licked her lips, catching some of what remained on them, the tastes of the woman in front of her being particularly prominent, “I… I know that you had said that you wouldn’t want to get into any kind of romantic relationship before the end of the war, whatever it shall be called, but… after that, how would you… choose, I guess?”

The Ascendant’s expression immediately mellowed, “Ah Ru…”

“I-I’m not going to say that you shouldn’t be spending your time with anyone else, I… well, I know that I probably couldn’t be with you the whole time, but-”

“No, that is not what I was going to say, although that was going to be part of it. The thing is, I don’t want to be considering things like that now, because it will be the same as getting attached to someone. The whole problem is that I cannot form such permanent bonds because it may cause everyone to suffer, not just me, and I would advise you to do the same. Don’t just get stuck with me, because I cannot be sure that I will survive, nor can I know that you will,” Wei Yi sighed, “As such, I think it would be best if both of us didn’t let ourselves be tied down. You can be with whoever you want to be with, I will probably do the same, and once it does end, and we are alive… Then I think we should try to get to know one another anew. Without the conflict, the risks, the secrecy…”

“I know what you mean… What about the child? How would you treat her?”

“As well as I could, although… It’s the same problem, isn’t it? Fuck… If I had to say something know, I would think that it would be better to act more as a friend taking care of her- You already assumed that it will be a girl?”

“Well, you probably know the stories. A phoenix and a woman, human or not, get together, and they will always have girls. A dragon and a woman end up having either girls or those with draconic features.”

“Hm… You appear to have given this much more thought than I had, much to my own peril. I suppose that there might be some truth to the stories, although there are just as many false tales out there as true ones, from what I know,” Wei Yi said, “Anyway, assuming that this war does go on for a year, or two, or even twenty, I… Shit, I really failed to think about that…”

She released her grip of Chao Ru and moved onto her back, keeping one arm on her own stomach as to not let it hang off the bed, and stared at the top of the tent as she attempted to consider all of this properly.

“Um… You don’t seem to get very emotional most of the time…”

“That is because I strive to avoid such things. If you’d seen me when I had fought Their Luo family, you would have seen how pissed off I can be at a couple of bastards… Still, if you share with her that I am the father, and I remain in any proximity to Paragon, or wherever you will remain to raise her, then the very thing I’d wanted to avoid will happen… and if you keep quiet and do it on your own, they will lack a parent… I’d thought about this in the past, but just forgot about it now… Ugh…”

Chao Ru witnessed this rapid decline in her calmness and got rather worried herself. Neither of them had given as much thought to this as they should have done, and it was clearly showing.

Before the matter got any worse, she tried to think of some kind of sensible compromise, as she did not wish to see her potential future child be harmed by poor arrangements, but in the moment, she especially didn’t wish to see the very leader of the strongest force against the Greats so far to collapse over a single decision that they had failed to ponder.

“What if you were to help me with her, but not reveal your relationship to them until-”

“Same problem as before, as I will get attached to her… Not to mention the fact that I won’t be near you most of the time anyway due to this fucking war…” traces of killing intent passed into her left hand, momentarily transforming her fingers into claws, although she dispersed it quickly, “All of this wouldn’t be a problem if there was no conflict here. We could have all been wherever we wanted, and nobody would need to be regularly concerned about their child’s life…”

She shut her eyes and sighed again. Although she wouldn’t voice her ultimate intentions for the world just yet, that being the realm of justice and surety that she had envisaged a long time ago, this matter effectively confirmed in her eyes that such a thing was absolutely necessary.

Whether she cared for any children now in the future, her own or not, she would obviously not want them to see their mother and father die, and then live in the exact same way that she had, except without the gift of the Truth of the Universe that had permitted her to turn her life around and already reach heights that she might have thought impossible before understanding what it could let her do.

In fact, that was one of the driving forces behind her current hesitation. She didn’t know whether or not she could get Chao Ru pregnant, whether the warrior herself was fertile, or whether the war would continue for long enough to be an issue for them, but she suspected that all of those were likely to be true. Nothing about either of them suggested the inability to reproduce, and there was no chance that the Great Families were just going to let them go even if she did something as unthinkable as attempting to surrender.

What she did know was that missing even one parent could significantly affect the one way a child would grow up, and that it was often a team effort between even more people than just two.

“Chao Ru, do you intend to go out to battle in the future?”

“Well… I am in the Chao family, so if I don’t come to my parents with the ability to beat my mother in an arm-wrestle and with no trophy of strength to display to my father, they might conclude that I am not worthy of you, or something…”

“Then let them.”

“Huh?”

“Who are they to decide who is and isn’t worthy of me, or of having my children, or of even being close to me? That is my decision, and if you want to be with me after the war, as friends with benefits, lovers or whatever else, then you can choose to do so on your own as well. It does not matter whether they disapprove.”

Chao Ru gasped at the sudden return of confidence to the Ascendant’s voice, “Wei Yi…”

“I was just reminded that those who fight for justice and freedom aren’t necessarily better than those they oppose. They would kill any parent that opposes them, while we intend to outright get out there and put down our own lives with minimal care… I cannot be with any children that I may have until the conflict ends, so if I have to compromise a little bit and risk damaging their future, then I will at the very least ensure that I compromise nowhere else,” Wei Yi stated, turning back towards her, “You must live, even if I don’t. While the child is still young, you must stay with her. Alright?”

“Yes, I will. I promise.”

“Also, if I cannot provide her – at this point, if it turns out to be a boy, this entire conversation will feel rather awkward, but whatever – with my own company, I would prefer to let her have friends and other people that she could talk to and get along with, other children especially. Would you mind?”

“That… I know what you’re saying, but… since we aren’t together, and for her sake, I suppose that I do not.”

“Yeah, if we’d been out of the war and we’d gotten in a proper relationship, this would effectively be me asking whether I could be cheating on you… I’m not sure whether to say that it is funny or sad that it only took me a few weeks of having one male feature to start resembling some of the worst stereotypes of men,” Wei Yi commented.

“You’re hardly the worst. You are trying to take care of any children you have, even if it unconventionally, while those types would probably not even consider it…”

“I suppose that’s also a way of looking at things.”

Chao Ru nodded, “Also, if I do get a child, and she is here, alone, without anyone of a similar age to speak to, I suspect that it wouldn’t be the best way to grow up. If I was to be here without anyone else to speak to while everyone was out fighting, it would also not be that good…”

“That, too, is very accurate. When I had been growing up, my parents died when I was young, but I did have some people that I was able to speak to, even if most of the kids around me were rather rude and keen to fight me for whatever reason…” she recalled that time and pondered, for a moment, whether they had some better reason for it or if they just found the weakest child they could and used her to satisfy their desire to fight that had been instilled on them from a young age, “Speaking of fighting, I do wonder whether it is a good idea…”

“What do you mean?”

“To encourage kids to want to fight one another, to have constant competition in every way over everything. It’s common in Yi City, or it certainly was in the Yi District, but besides thinking that such focus on fighting is rather unhealthy in a way, I am also wondering whether it is even a good idea,” she explained, “Some competition is necessary, that is obvious, but to force random divides between servants and other members of the family, the need to fight one another for resources, the freedom to do so especially… In a peaceful world, I can guarantee that this wouldn’t be suitable, but in the world we are in, it is much more difficult to say.”

“Right… You said that I had given more thought to all of this than you, but you seem to have plenty of questions ready this quickly… All of this while we still aren’t sure that I’ll get pregnant.”

“I may not be a particular expert on this, but I’d imagine that something that thick being delivered straight to the womb would hardly struggle to impregnate anyone… Say, would you like to practise for something?”

“Hm? For wha- ah!” she let out a surprised cry when she felt a finger wander to her behind, pressing against the hole there, “R-Really? You definitely have a thing for that…”

“A thing? I do not. I approve of variety, and I also think that being further away from the womb would be far safer than the usual form of sex… Also, if you think that this is unusual, you have not looked around any of the brothels in the prison realm. Almost everyone there does it at least once a day, especially after all of them got to drink the miracle fluid in place of other forms of food.”

“Doesn’t change the facts…”

“Indeed, it does not,” Wei Yi smiled, “You’re here being all shy again when you want it as well. Come here…”

The camp did not get to enjoy a calm night, as much as they would have liked to, although the two of them did not go for as long this time, and did have some sense to control their voices rather than letting them blast all over the supposed Hunters of the Cosmos camp.

Fortunately for the people of the camp, especially those that were being more than just distracted by the noises, Wei Yi soon amplified the barrier that she had already put at the tent entrance to prevent the surging of sand into it and also caused it to block out most of the sound, allowing the rest of the night to pass with one set of poorly subdued sounds being replaced by a significant amount of shuffling in beds and far better subdued ones.

After everyone fell asleep, Chao Ru included, she stepped out of the tent with her clothes on – as hard as it was to call her current outfit that – and breathed in the cool air of the night, incinerating any particles of sand or dust that attempted to enter her throat and lungs. She stood there for some time, gazing into the distance, having no particular goal in mind while she did so. Even if someone was to suggest that she was simply standing there to relax, that wouldn’t be entirely right either as she had relaxed more than enough already, at least mentally, but she also had little more to consider to occupy her mind.

So, she busied herself with the view of the shifting sands and the sandstorm.

It was harsh and powerful, but when it came into contact with the barrier manifested by the array laid out within and throughout the tents, it was quietened and weakened until the terrible storm acted as little more than an unpleasant breeze to most of those within the camp.

There would be an occasional strong gust of wind that wouldn’t be entirely blocked by the array, as she had intentionally limited the amount of her strength that she invested into it as to not make it seem entirely unrealistic for something that a person in the fourth realm could create, but after it caused the sides of the tents to flutter for a little bit, it would pass and things would return to normal. It was simple, calm, and while she couldn’t know exactly how many would attempt to come after her, now or in the future, she knew that it was not at all representative of the conflict to come the moment the war starts.

Ideally, there would be as little combat as possible, and things could be resolved in an easy way that would allow her to take care of all of the people she had taken under her wing, but it wouldn’t happen that way, that much she could be certain of at any time. The Great Families were too invested in their current positions, and had too sturdy a foundation, and it was similar for other threats as well.

For instance, the primordial deities that had been put to sleep as to save the world from their influence and hatred could rise again at any time, especially if the forces that the Greats were keeping at bay were exactly those entities, and they would be even less interested in staying down than the Greats were. After them, the Hunger of the Beyond was also a potential threat, and if it was greater than the primordial deities, which seemed to be the case, then defeating them would be even more challenging, especially if they had no interest whatsoever in human life, as they would then be nothing more than food for those entities, provided that their names were suitable for them.

Then, if the otherworldly demons and their stories had any validity, there might even be a greater world and greater threat that they have to face, where even she might not be able to put up much a fight. At that point, casualties and prolonged battles would be outright guaranteed.

Essentially, no matter what she did, no matter how much she hoped to avoid death and bloodshed, she wouldn’t be able to do so, and thus she had only one alternative. She needed to finish things as quickly as possible, to prevent any more people suffering than absolutely had to, so that the world could one day become the embodiment of justice, where all could be made fair for the many people living within it, even if that required even more death than might otherwise come.

One day, perhaps countless years later, the world will know of her actions, and they would have a view on them and on her.

Perhaps they will conclude that she acted righteously, and that her deeds and achievements justified the means, just as they said the same thing about whatever Kong Shi Meng had undoubtedly done within his own life, and just as the Black Terror had told her many others were seen as heroes. It could be that they would view her as a terrible monster that had upset the balance of the world and ruined so many things that others had sought to build up without putting up a single thing in their place. They could even believe her to be some insignificant person that did nothing one way or another, although that was unlikely. People did not tend towards neutrality, as unfortunate as that was.

If she succeeded and survived, she could hear their words and receive their judgement, and if she did not, perhaps her soul would either be dispersed or permitted to reincarnate in some form depending on the people’s response to her. Perhaps heaven’s will itself would pass judgement in their stead…

“What are you doing out here, Wei Yi?” Great Dark asked as he emerged from his tent, finding her standing in the middle of the camp without any notable movement.

“Thinking about things, staring at the sand, that sort of thing. Even with boundless stamina, there’s still the matter of exhaustion for yourself and your partner to consider, so I unfortunately couldn’t spend the whole day and night in a more pleasurable activity… Not that it, too, is free of things for me to consider. What about you?”

“Not quite as vague as your thoughts, but… I have been curious about our repeated utterance of Their title in the prison realm…” he paused, taking advantage of the lack of other listeners to get it out of his system, “How can we be sure that they can only detect us when the word is spoken?”

“You mean to ask whether they might have a method of observation that can simply be directed at us now even if none of us say Their names? While that isn’t necessarily impossible, especially considering the spatial shenanigans that the seventh realm and above can pull off, after giving it some more thought, I don’t believe that they will be able to detect our speech in the prison realm at all, even if it partially open like this.”

“Why not?”

“To explain that, I’d need to reference some eastern tales that I’ve heard. Do you know of the notion that the tribulations of the eastern Daoists do not fall upon them if they are in a spatial realm?”

“I have not heard that, no… Is this true?”

“Not a fucking clue, frankly. The Eastern Continent is a strange place, and the people there are even stranger. Apparently, they greet every random cultivator as a Fellow Daoist, and are particularly fond of sects that effectively blanket their entire continent,” Wei Yi commented, “Anyway, not the original point. It is something that may be verified, but I do think that there is a certain dissonance between the prison realm and the Planar Continents, at least. If they were not manipulated to have a connection with them, then there wouldn’t even be a trace of planar energy, so it is very likely that it is far more difficult to look in or out of it than it is to view any place in the world around us.”

“We will need to confirm that at some later point… If spatial realms are effective for this, we may be able to create spatial barriers… to allow any of our lands to speak freely even while They are still in a position of strength.”

“There is potential for that, but it would require a proper seventh realm cultivator first. As you know, Yi Shi Ming is not in quite the perfect state, given that she is a spatial spirit, whereas none of us are yet near to the seventh realm. You are closer in terms of the number of stages, but I believe that I may be able to cultivate more quickly, judging from past experiences. We will both need resources, though.”

“Indeed… How long has it taken you to reach this realm?”

“Do you want to hear the time taken to cultivate, specifically, or time in general?”

“Both could be of use… although some time would naturally need to be excluded due to the prison realm’s limitations…”

“Technically, I started cultivating on my 12th birthday, but I effectively began from scratch on the first of the fifth month of the twentieth year, or the year 1,201,520. I had been sixteen, and I am now forty-one. That means that I have spent twenty-five years, more or less,” she said, “However, the actual time taken is closer to one or two months of continuous cultivation, since I had been forced to take quite a few breaks on the way there.”

“… You are very likely to reach the seventh realm before me, aren’t you?”

“Yup. The moment I reach the fifth with every form of energy I use, my cultivation speed is likely to surge significantly as they will all be in harmony with one another. At that point, if we are already fighting Them in full force and looting their many storage points, I should have enough resources to rush into the seventh realm and beyond.”