V4C36: To Capture Districts

It was difficult to argue with the results, and the results were plain before them.

The force that seemed unstoppable was gone, there were traces of obliterated flesh and clothing where the beam had struck, and the mark that the beam itself left attested to the sheer power that the attack possessed. Best of all for the Ascendant’s Arbiters, however, was that their leader had returned.

Due to their cultivation and previous proximity to the centre of the desert fortress, Great Dark and Great Light were closest to her, and were thus the first to be able to reach her the moment that the people of Paragon realised that they had not just managed to survive, but that their foe had been pushed back by an absolute, overwhelming force. Its source still stood in the centre of Paragon, proudly reaching into the skies while the orb of energy at the centre shone down upon them, that blackened crimson now absent from it.

They ran up to her, finding her still staring in the direction of the shattered wall and parted sands, in the direction that the Great Family members had fled.

“Wei Yi, what has… no, what have…” Great Light stuttered, giving time for his brother to speak.

“There had been a kind of… perverse presentation at the Chu District… it seemed like They had been able to capture you, and so…”

“First of all, we will no longer use that attempt to hide their identities. They had wanted the words to die, so we shall ensure that they never will. The Great Families, the plague of this world, must end, and if the entirety of the Western Continent cannot hear of them, then we will likely fail in our task,” Wei Yi said, glancing back but not turning around fully, her left hand still clenched in its killing will form, “Also, where do you think I’d gone on a stupid mission? They thought they had gotten me.”

“You mean you got captured on purpose? You insane bi-mhm!”

“Great Light, shut it! You mean to say that your capture was not some orchestration on Their part, but you sneaking in to their territory?”

“Indeed, I sought to learn of the Great Families in the most effective way, and this was the one that I had selected. Took a while to pick everything up to be able to act in a convincing manner, but eventually, the Great Families were fooled for long enough. Also, there’s no point to holding back now. The Greats know of our location, and if they ever decide to bring one of the first generation out of Testament, they’d not stop themselves from flattening the area just because we chose to not mention their names a few times,” Wei Yi stated, her eyes shutting for a moment as her left fingers finally changed back from claws, and the crimson mist that was covering the fortress receded slightly, “There, finally…”

She turned around, her silver eyes glimmering with sparks of crimson that brought her already powerful gaze to yet another level, as it seemed to command the very world around her to act according to her will.

“Sorry, withdrawing killing intent can be rather difficult, especially when you have a mental domain drowning in it,” Wei Yi said, looking to the rest of the Arbiters in the distance, “Come on, get closer. There is something that I wish for all of us to do, and I think that it would be best if we did it all at once, just to get the message across.”

The Ascendant’s Arbiters glanced to one another with some curiosity, the Hunters of the Cosmos that had been mixed in amongst them being particularly curious to learn what it was that they were intending to suddenly do, and came closer as they were instructed to.

“The sparks of life are heading rapidly in our direction. We appear to have failed in our plan.”

“Indeed. One of them even dares to utter our title, time and time again. The Rebel has no distinction between right and wrong, no shame, and only shallow arrogance.”

Two figures spoke to one another, looking upon the Death of Words and observing the individual sparks of discussion about them as well as those that belonged to their own members. So long as the Life Spark Sensing ceremony was prepared in advance and the flames of life of their own were attuned to prior to their departure from the fortress, it was possible to keep track of them without needing to consume the energy used for the typical version of the ceremony, hence why these two members of the Great Families could see the sudden drop in their own numbers.

“Even she has the common sense not to speak of us too much. Look, she has-”

The first was barely able to finish the thought inside of her head, not to mention the words that she was speaking, when the point that they had attacked suddenly ignited with point after point of the Death of Words array.

They had no time to fade before their titles were spoken once again, the sparks doubling atop one another and growing brighter with every single repetition.

“She… The sheer gall!” the second figure exclaimed, staring at the growing brightness of the points.

It was no challenge to understand what they were seeing. It was a declaration, a proclamation and proud affirmation of the victory of the group that hid within that ancient fortress, and it was repeated time and time again to ensure that the Great Families had no possible chance to miss it. They weren’t worried about being found out now, so they spoke time and time again, announcing the names of their foes without any reservation.

With each call, the individual that spoke was highlighted on the enormous map, but that hardly did the Greats any good when it was every single person present, and when all that it did was confirm just how many of the group they had failed to defeat before the Rebel saved them. The Rebel obviously knew that they were being watched, and so presented each and every failure in the battle right to them, challenging them to come once more if they were truly brave enough to do so. Even without the reports of the attacking force reaching Testament, they could tell that they had the ability to protect themselves once, and that they would likely endure another similar attack… not that they were able to call one.

Around half of the attacking force perished, while the total number of Great Family members that had lived prior to their first deaths after the Rebel’s appearance that could also act in the Planar Continents was only ninety-two, with half being in the third generation, and many of those had perished.

Now, they only had around two thirds of their initial forces, none of which could develop much in strength while the forces that opposed them had clearly risen in power greatly in just the time that it had taken them to travel from the Great Ping Family mansion over to their fortress. If enough time to permit a new third generation to develop was permitted to the Greats, then their enemies might all rise to a similar level.

“Their arrogance knows no bounds… They think that just because they-” one more, the first figure tried to speak, but a sudden phenomenon shook the entirety of their territory.

A vast wind of pure planar energy spread out across the entire continent, the density of energy within the air rising rapidly by several folds, until taking a simple breath could be equivalent to regular cultivation prior to this change. The mist of violet spread into Testament as well, and caused the entire spatial realm to ignite momentarily as it desperately attempted to adjust to the sudden rise in the energy within it. As it passed through the bodies of the two figures, they almost felt it overwhelm them, surging past their anchors and into their flesh as the bodies that they had long been preparing to decrease the quantity of planar energy all across the world.

Thus, when all of their efforts over the hundred years of their life were suddenly reversed by the matter of thousands of years, it took them some time to stabilise their states and adjust to the amplification.

“What was… it came from the direction of the Rebel and her forces… Did they release all of the energy that we had contained?” the first figure questioned.

“The Life Spark Sensing ceremony had been unable to detect the remnant traces of those that had perished under her fist… She has some ability to capture the essences of our anchors and crush them, releasing everything we had worked for so long to subdue into the air once again!” the second exclaimed, “To recover to the point that we could confidently strike once more… argh!”

“… and just to be absolutely clear, repeat their title, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“The Great Families!”

“Exactly. We will destroy them all, wipe their influence from Yi City, release everything that they had stored away and return it to the people of the Western Continent, to whom every technique, artefact, piece of knowledge and drop of energy belong!” Wei Yi proclaimed, the blackened crimson sparks within her eyes surging alongside her words, “All of us will begin to act at this very moment, and we will guarantee that we may live free of them! That those who we know, who we may love or even hate will be free of the monstrous grasp that they have over the world! We will be free, and they will have no chance to stand against us!”

Her conquering presence surged throughout Paragon once again and mixed with the vast quantity of killing will that had spread throughout it and lifted it into the air, freeing the fortress from her mental energy.

All that remained was sufficient energy for any common human to attain a cultivation realm with a single breath, and enough for even those in the third realm to benefit from regular cultivation without the assistance of arrays, pills or inscriptions to accelerate their absorption of energy and to increase the quantity that they were able to interact with.

It was distinctly prevented from escaping due to the core that existed around the enormous Endless Monolith that stood in the centre, with the Monolith and core alike acting just as they would in the body of a regular cultivator. Within, the energy was able to gather at a greater density without any obstacles from the world around it, including the natural attempts of the world to dissipate all energy within it equally.

Wei Yi had made use of this to allow Paragon to retain far more of the released planar energy from the anchor energy than the rest of the world received, although she was sure that it would still spread out a little more equally over time.

Furthermore, she did not intend to hold back on her usage of anchor energy any more, since she had something that she could develop nearly endlessly without it being affected by the Truth of the Universe, since she already understood the technique of Obliteration perfectly. All that she needed to advance it was to increase its power, to ensure that the beam-based attack was able to match and overpower the point beams of the Greats and to prove to them that their ghastly methods were not even worth everything that they had done to acquire them.

“For that reason, I will place a library into this fortress. It will contain countless books and manuals infused with a degree of my own understanding of the basic principles, although I will not include anything other than that so that you may develop them on your own into a different direction,” Wei Yi said after everyone had calmed down slightly, “Do not attempt to study more of these than you need to, and don’t try to overwhelm your head just because of what happened today. There is no point.

“It is essential that every single one of us survives and is able to confront the Great Families together and to see the world that can be made without them, and if you try to obliterate your own minds just for the sake of minor improvement in a field that you do not even comprehend, you will not benefit. Focus either on what you know and understand, or on what you believe to be the most useful and appropriate path for you. If you are not certain about it, whether due to a lack of experience in some particular field or due to a general uncertainty about yourself, you can speak to anyone in the fortress, so long as they are free. Do this until tomorrow, for then we shall depart for a brief battle with a few forces.

“Great Light, Great Dark, Luo Lia Kun, Yi Shi Ming and the rest of you, we’ll speak in the prison realm.”

As she spoke, the image of her Ascendant’s Library arose within the desert fortress, overlapping with some of the buildings in order to be able to contain just enough information to deliver across all of her powerful techniques within the physical structures of Paragon.

With a quick wave, she gestured the Ascendant’s Arbiters towards it, then turned to the group that she had initially invited to speak with her prior to her departure from the fortress and into the lands of the Greats. They clearly displayed a variety of expressions, with Great Dark and Yi Shi Ming being the best at hiding what they were thinking from outright spilling onto their faces, but they hardly wished to object to speaking somewhere where they would not be the centre of attention for a lot of people that wouldn’t understand them fully.

As such, they followed her into the gateways of the Kong Prison Realm that had reopened, heading through the central entryway. Rather than arriving simply at the mountains, they instead saw a stairway of silver and crimson rise up and connect to a vague structure that was barely visible from the outside, but clearly contained a great deal on the inside.

“This is… Wei Yi, you have reached the sixth realm already?” Yi Shi Ming was the first to notice.

“Sixth realm of killing will, or my mental cultivation if I hadn’t explained that to some of you,” Wei Yi replied, taking the first step onto the staircase and finding that it was as stable as she hoped, “When empowered both by my internal core, and my bloodline, it can rise to great heights. Manipulating space is not yet within my power, but creating some minor elements is hardly challenging.”

Had someone like Wu Yi Tai been here, rather than standing in Paragon beside his soldiers trying to figure out whether they should also enter the library, he would have likely retorted at the proclamation that making something this complex out of nothing but her mental energy, but the rest were familiar enough with her typical activities to not be too perplexed by her accomplishment. Furthermore, while this may be somewhat impressive, the manner in which she absolutely tore through a great portion of the terrain of the fortress with her very Monolith was significantly more notable within their eyes, and far more prominent.

After she confirmed the stability of her creation, they followed after her and rose to the structure in the air, stepping in to find that it was highly reminiscent of the meeting room within Paragon if it was entwined with the underground chambers of Beast’s Rest and then combined with something else.

They knew that there was some other influence present, but they couldn’t recognise it.

Additionally, their attention was grabbed by the woman that Wei Yi had brought in with her, who had crimson skin, long dark horns that curved back, and claw-like fingers. It was a highly strange appearance, even within the Planar Continents that were usually so full of insane entities and features as a result of physiques and bloodlines. However, they had seen her participate within the earlier battle, and she was also standing close to Wei Yi, so they presumed that she wasn’t some monster.

With the additional seat present, the woman had somewhere to sit, and then a few more appeared as the otherworldly demons suddenly found themselves within those new chairs.

“- and so… Eh? Why are we in here?” Miyu asked, glancing about until her eyes locked onto Wei Yi, “Oh, you’re back! How are you doing? What happened out there? Your realm has advanced? That’s great!”

“… Here I thought I was the agitated one.”

“While I agree with the idea, I don’t quite see how you’re particularly agitated,” Fu Zan noted, for the difference between someone sitting and speaking calmly and someone doing the exact opposite was obvious in many ways.

“Oh, but I am very agitated. I’ve just returned from a mansion belonging to the Great Families, and I happen to be incredibly angry at every little thing that I heard and saw there. If I could, I would most certainly go all out and tear through everything I can. However, I am controlling myself for the moment… No, I am desperately attempting to do so. If you pay attention, you might be able to see that the skin on my left hand will occasionally change and twist into something more akin to bone, or Jia Rong’s claws. That’s Jia Rong, by the way,” Wei Yi nodded to her right, where the demonic woman sat.

Jia Rong waved hesitantly at everyone else in the room, noticing as she did so that the Ascendant’s hand did indeed flicker between skin and bone for a few moments.

“Let us not focus on that. There is some information that I need to share with all of you, and I would prefer to do so really quickly before we get into action, which we should be doing as soon as possible before the Great Families are able to recover,” Wei Yi said as she lowered her left hand beneath the table, resting it on her knee while the fluctuations of mental energy could be resolved, “Before I do, have any questions or statements you wish to make?”

“We have seen a few images from the Chu District… was that actually you?”

“Yes, it was. If I had just appeared at one of their mansions, then no matter how stupid those fuckers are, they would have noticed that something was off. I had to pass through some system of theirs, and this was one that I found easiest to infiltrate.”

“Why did you not tell us in advance?”

“How did you react upon seeing this? Upon learning of my capture? It doesn’t really matter, because the key is that your reaction was genuine, exactly as you would act in that situation because you did believe it to be entirely real. So, imagine if they were able to observe you then, and see your every reaction – they would have had no reason to suspect me, because it would seem legitimate,” Wei Yi explained, “Now imagine if I had told all of you what I’d do, and when you saw something at the Chu District, you just grinned at the imminent fate of the Greats and carried on. Wouldn’t it be odd?”

“That… fuck.”

“Indeed. It seems that you didn’t try to lash out, either, which should have led to the perfect atmosphere if anyone was to be able to watch your reactions. I would have preferred not to do something like this, but there are a lot of things that you may wish to do that you then cannot,” she put her hand back on the table as it had finally stabilised in its regular form, “Anything else?”

“I think that it would be best to move onto the strategy… if it is as urgent as you say,” Great Dark said, with none disagreeing with him, “What is our plan?”

“It’s very simple, really. We need to capture a district or two to truly make ourselves a power within the north of Yi City, and to prevent the Greats from having the opportunity to easily attack us. The other districts would not be keen to assist them, and the Greats themselves would need to invest far more effort into defeating that many warriors, especially now that the quantity of planar energy will spike so immensely… I hope that the Great Families have been preparing their bodies for a continued decrease in energy density, since that would mean that they would be ravaged by the sudden spike,” the Ascendant grinned for a moment before lightly slapping her left hand, which attempted to revert to the killing will state once more.

So that there was less killing intent and killing will flowing throughout it, she raised it and conjured a map of Yi City with the discoveries and markings that she had added to it over her exploration and travels of it, copying it from the one in her Ascendant’s Library. Certain points had far more detail than others, and if she willed it, she could even add the third dimension to the map itself. If not for the decreased visibility that would have caused, she would have probably done it.

On that map, the three northern border districts were highlighted – the Chao District, Ju District, and the Bai District. Out of the three, the Chao District was smallest, with the Ju District being largest as a result of all of the space that was required to feed and house a population without the extensive usage of planar energy, but in the conventional view the Chao District was often seen as most dangerous.

“If we all attack together, the Greats will almost certainly seek to root us out even at some losses of their own. As much of my influence that I am able to spread with me, I cannot replicate the exact power of that Obliteration beam without something to stabilise a spatial realm and thus my Endless Monolith, so I would not be able to act in a matter that is as effective as I would like. To make things easier for ourselves, we will need to split up a little bit,” she pointed to the Chao District, “The Ascendant’s Arbiters shall go to the Chao District in full, surrounding it and presenting the ultimatum of temporary occupation to it under the threat of force.”

“I… doubt that they will be keen to accept such a proposal, their characters being what they are…”

“For that reason, I would like to ask Jia Rong to participate as a sort of leader temporarily, and to challenge whatever diplomat they pretend to send our way to some test of raw physical might. She will win, and it will give us the chance to impose something basic upon them. You don’t need to hold onto the territory for long, only until I get back and assist you with slapping the Patriarch in the face and telling him what is happening.”

“The question itself is likely obvious to you, but I shall ask it on behalf of the others. What shall you be doing, Wei Yi?” Yi Shi Ming asked in the stead of the rest of the gathered group, save for those that weren’t paying attention at all and couldn’t care less about the situation.

“We do need to capture a district, so I shall go to the Bai District and take it. I have a sixth realm energy, and my planar energy easily equates the common fifth realm. I understand the nature of Law well enough to overcome the vast majority of the group arts that they may employ, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve for disposing of groups of weaker foes that are strong together,” she explained, tapping the Bai District on the map, “Whoever’s in charge over there will probably try to stop me, but I am sure that some agreement can be reached with them or someone in a position to compete with them. Unless they are a particularly despicable candidate for leadership, I shall temporarily support them and let them take the place of the Patriarch.”

“Could the Bai family be aware of the Great Families already, and be seeking to act against them now that they know they are weakened?” Meng Chu asked.

“Let’s not put our hopes into… what? You… Ashen Form physique permits resurrection?”

Wei Yi’s eyes, and after a moment of confusion, the eyes of everyone else, widened as they looked upon Meng Chu, who sat calmly in the room as if nothing at all had occurred. His body, clothing, hair and weapons were exactly as they had been at the moment of his death, and any wounds that had appeared upon his body were entirely absent from his current appearance.

“Resurrection? You mean… I did actually die on that battlefield?”

“I’d imagine that I don’t need to remind you of such a thing, but yes, you did indeed die. I had… ah, now that I think about it, the number of supposed deaths did not match the number of embers that I had collected, so I should have known that something was up. Could’ve still said something.”

“I would have certainly done that had I known that it wasn’t just some terrible dream!” Meng Chu exclaimed, looking down at his hands and body with a newfound appreciation, “Huh…”

“Care to tell us how you came back to life, or am I just going to need to move on from something like this without a direct explanation? I am sure that Yi Shi Ming would have spotted it – yes, seems she did – but having the first person perspective of events can make them vastly more interesting and detailed,” Wei Yi said, leaning back as she found that her hand finally stopped acting up. As it turned out, some good news every now and then helped to suppress terrible rage.

“I had been on the battlefield, then everything went white. It was strange, and lasted an uncertain amount of time, but then I suddenly realised that I was sitting on one of the seats in that room where the flame-like point is, and that I was perfectly fine physically, without a trace of the damage that had been inflicted upon me…”

He stopped speaking, looking down at himself again. Nothing about him suggested in the slightest that he had been in a conflict that had literally killed him only minutes before this, and yet here he was.

Perhaps the more significant and impressive matter was that he had not only survived but managed to recover in such a short amount of time, managing to make it to the entry gateway of the prison realm to join the rest of the central group of Arbiters following their Ascendant. If such a thing could be done repeatedly, then while he would still prefer to avoid it due to the extreme stress that something like death inflicted upon him, he could participate in any conflict with the full awareness that he would just return to Beast’s Rest if anything occurred.

“Does that flame now look weaker, or is it about the same as it had been before this?”

“It… ah, it did indeed look somewhat feeble… Does that mean that I will not be able to revive in such a fashion again?”

“If I had to make a guess, I would say that the Ashen Form, based on what we can understand, results in a certain binding to the world, a certain anchoring of body and mind. That point in the room is an example of this, and perhaps it will recover with enough time. Seeing as you often used that room, it would make sense why the anchoring node appeared there, and why it could bring you back. You didn’t go down without any regrets or desires, did you?” she asked, hardly needing him to nod to know the answer, “Your wish to persist likely triggered the Ashen Form… so long as what I know about it is even remotely close to the truth. That is not always the case.”

Meng Chu knew even less, so he was hardly able to comment on the matter.

“Anyway, I would suggest we speak about this later. For now, the plan. Listen carefully, and if you want to raise questions or exclamations of some kind, do so after I finish talking. I am not joking about the time restriction we currently have.”