V4C39: The History of the Bai

Every district of Yi City contained great wealth and power, somewhere within their depths. Even the most unassuming and uninteresting districts contained numerous secrets and techniques, plentiful jewels and treasures that had never been taken from the hands of the families that controlled them.

Most of these were obviously sealed away, hidden somewhere so that no friend or foe could take them, and some were even partially forgotten about since none had been able to find and make use of them, but there were a few treasures and items of interest that were more accessible and obtainable for the more powerful members of the families that controlled each district. For example, at least part of the immortal gold that had been removed from the Yi family Ancestral Hall had to not only have gone away from the building, but some must have also been stored on the inside as an attempt to prevent it from being taken.

The Ning District likely contained stores of blacksmithing materials and techniques for the usage of the family in particular emergencies, since there might be a time when they require materials to create an item of great importance but are unable to track them down and obtain them. Presumably, the Luo District would hold a vast number of talisman-related items, as well as more general stores just as all the other districts would, while the Ping District might just be brimming with everything that the assassins and thieves of the district had stolen and stashed away.

In other words, most districts still retained something of value, although they likely lacked anything quite as valuable as spatial metal, which would have been incredibly nice to find.

Taking something like that might put them on guard and on edge, perhaps even making them less likely to agree to work with the Ascendant’s Arbiters if they somehow conclude that it was either their responsibility, or that they were connected, but this was acceptable. Some leading groups would need to be removed or contended nonetheless, and while it might make things more difficult in one field, it would also permit Wei Yi to obtain power that is absolutely required at this moment in time.

While the Bai District was unlikely to have anything that was highly useful and beneficial to her specifically, seeing as whatever resources it would have would be related to group-type techniques, but every district would have some more general items and resources. Those would be suitable for the usage of the most significant people there and would thus be for the sixth or seventh realm, which was exactly the kind of items that she required. If she obtained pills, she could enhance their benefit with her cosmic energy and the Dao of Law, and if it was something else that aided with cultivation, she could still benefit from it so long as she was able to claim it.

The best thing to find would still be pills, however, as it was the type of item that she could enhance most easily and consume most quickly, whereas an inscription or array that boosts planar energy gathering would be less effective for her, and be less influenced by her energy.

Before anything like that could be taken, Wei Yi would need to get inside, but that was where she currently excelled. With the featureless golden Mask of Yama upon her face – she had attempted to keep it on her shoulder, but the effects simply wouldn’t activate – she appeared able to phase her very being into a slightly different realm from what everyone else was able to observe. With it, walking right through the open gates was effortless.

‘Still, this item, as it is now, has its flaws. When it was held by those to whom it was not bound, a mere bloodline resonance occurring between me and the power of my blood in another was able to alert me to the presence of those wearing the Mask of Yama. That means that if I was to proclaim the name of the Great Families, they might be able to find me,’ she considered as she looked around herself, finding that the district appeared to be operating rather ordinarily, ‘Actually, that might not be that easy for them. My possession of the Mask and House of Gold means that they are stronger, and they lack such an obvious link to me, only having whatever they utilise to track me down. Also, I might be able to activate and deactivate it over and over again to just keep confusing them.’

Due to the Mask of Yama now being linked to her, it would also develop in strength with every realm that she reaches, just as the House of Gold was currently seven cubic metres in size and would continue growing with every single cultivation stage. She wasn’t sure what the exact benefits of cultivation would be upon the otherworldly gift, but she had a few guesses.

It was obviously an artefact that was focused on the obstruction of one’s existence, and at changing the course of events in one’s own favour at the risk of provoking powerful figures to counter one’s efforts. The Chen family members had seen that very thing occur to them when the bloodline resonance had called Wei Yi in, and whether or not the description of the Mask of Yama had mentioned it purely coincidentally or due to its effect including the provocation of entities around its user, she did know that she should be careful not to provoke such a reaction while she didn’t have the power to endure it.

Thus, to minimize any unnecessary actions in the world before she had a reason to risk a response from a powerful figure, she did not act immediately, instead walking through the streets quietly.

She looked around at the people that got on with their day, that engaged in small arguments or even brawls, looked at those that gazed out of the windows of their homes out onto the streets, and tried to listen out for their words.

In the particular state that the Mask of Yama bestowed upon her, the sounds of the others did not reach her as well as they could regularly, as if she was attempting to listen to them through a wall, dense pool of water, and a large quantity of material to muffle the sound further, so it was rather challenging to make most of their words out. With some effort, she was still able to understand some of the basics.

For example, she learned that they had also noticed the immense boom of planar energy, although that would be more difficult to miss than notice, that they were concerned about the absence of both the 7th Legion and the Hunters of the Cosmos, which had apparently been announced publicly to the people, and, most importantly for her, she found out where the Ancestral Hall was.

It was in that place that the most valuables would be stored, and so it was there that she wished to go for the planned and unannounced material acquisition.

Rather than rushing in directly, she decided that it would be better to approach the area cautiously and see what else everyone was saying, since that may offer her some greater understanding both about the security measures of the Bai Ancestral Hall, and give her some idea of what could be found inside. There was little chance of this, but if there was some possibility of the hall containing measures that were able to uncover even an otherworldly gift, she would rather be aware of it and lose a little bit of time rather than be discovered and lose the possibility of an easy alliance and a great quantity of resources for her own benefit.

Unlike the overly golden Yi Ancestral Hall that she was most familiar, the one she found in the Bai District was more subdued, made of more ordinary materials in terms of appearance, although their value was still undisputable. In the same way that the Yi District’s Ancestral Hall depicted a number of scenes forged from immortal gold, this hall featured carvings of historical moments from abyssal stone, with nearly every detail out at least half-way out of the actual wall of the structure.

The majority of elements focused not on the Master of Yi City, as could be expected in a district where he had not remained for long and likely didn’t have much to do when all of his attention would have been to the north or east, but on the very first legion of the Bai family, the one that had made the family famous for countless years to come. It was also organised in chronological order, so Wei Yi decided to follow that order while observing those that stood around the vicinity of it, having their conversations and gossiping about everything they could.

Before finding a single conversation worth listening to – hearing things ranging from talk about the most handsome man in the district to the opinion of two hunters on the best part of a sandworm was of no interest to her at the moment – she was able to take a close look at the first scene.

In that still scene, as if someone had taken an instant and frozen it in time to be able to behold it in its full majesty, she could see four figures, all siblings, standing side by side. They looked weak and feeble, with barely any muscle or fat in their bodies, and all had long hair that they lacked the proper tools to trim it. None of them looked to be in any suitable state for grandiose acts.

However, from the limited knowledge that Wei Yi had of the history of the district, these figures were very much capable of them.

She moved on from that scene, and tried to find someone a little more useful than the previous people she had gotten the opportunity to listen to. Nobody stood immediately next to the wall depicting the images, and so she decided that she might as well get through every single fragment of history as to learn a little more about the district that she would be looting for everything that she could fit into the House of Gold now that it was able to store far more than it had only a few days ago.

‘The problem is that this muffling and distortion makes it incredibly difficult to understand what any one of them is saying…’ Wei Yi thought as she attempted to eavesdrop on a pair of people standing by the hall itself.

A couple, male and female, were having a chat near the second scene, that of the four figures training together while something immense and dangerous loomed over them. This couple was standing right next to the feet of the most masculine figure amongst the four historical figures, although, at this point, none of them had any obvious features that would make them out to be either male or female.

So far as she was able to tell, the man that spoke said, “The new arrivals have been very keen to eye this place. I thought that the Eastern Continent looked down on that kind of thing.”

“They’re all hypocrites, from what I know,” the woman replied, glancing past the man’s shoulder with a glare as if she might be able to catch the easterners that she was speaking about, “All of them say whatever they want, then rob and steal.”

“We’ll need to remind the Bai to keep an eye out for it, won’t we? Whatever they want to keep hidden down there probably shouldn’t be exposed to the Daoists.”

The woman nodded in reply, then the two of them departed, leaving Wei Yi to move on and contemplate what she had heard before she had a good view of the third image portrayed on the side of the House of Gold.

Putting aside the convenience of them talking about something like this right in front of her, which tempted her to emerge from concealment just to quickly thank them, she was curious to investigate both the matter in the Ancestral Hall and that of the Daoists that had apparently arrived here at some recent point. The latter seemed less significant for her, since the Daoists only had a few techniques and methods that she really wanted to study which she wouldn’t necessarily be able to discover just due to the complex way in which something like tribulations worked.

On the other hand, if there was something hidden within the Bai Ancestral Hall, she would be likely to come across it, at least if it was something prominent enough for the eastern people to find it if they tried to snoop around. It wasn’t something that these figures supposedly knew about, which was a shame since she couldn’t just follow them around to find out about it easily, but it was bound to be something of interest to her.

Whether it was some kind of treasure, secret knowledge, or some kind of mystery that she could resolve, it was almost certain to be something useful.

‘It could also be troublesome, but what I can do now more so than I ever could before is evade pursuit and attention from the world around me,’ Wei Yi thought while she intentionally walked only an inch from a large crowd just to confirm that she wasn’t just imagining the effect for herself, since that would only lead to herself embarrassing herself later on.

The third scene that she saw depicted the four figures obtaining items of some significant power, shown by greater waves in the stone wall that formed the shape of these objects. Amongst them was a ring, something that looked to resemble a farmer’s scythe, a glove, and a thin choker of some kind.

‘Certainly an odd list of items, but I’ve seen stranger. I’ve got a ring and a glove, but a spike and an eye instead of the other two,’ she noted, ‘It seems that they belonged to the first of the Bai, an ancient group of four individuals that had been responsible for the creation of the first legion of the Bai family as well as the establishment of this district. Hm, it would certainly be nice if something belonging to them, perhaps these very items, were stored in the Ancestral Hall, but it is obviously not going to be that simple. They are either absent entirely, or in the hands of the most powerful figures in the district, from whom I cannot steal directly.’

Since there were still no conversations of interest to her at that part of the hall, she moved around to the fourth image, which showed these same figures wielding their items to face off not only against powerful foes, but also against themselves, for each one has something that binds them down and restrict them from becoming as free and powerful as they could be.

The exact troubles of these ancestors were not portrayed, unfortunately enough, but what was shown was that they were pursuing something represented by an abstract circle with no detail at all.

Had the images been able to move like the scenes of the Fated Dragon Hatchling, as displayed by the mysterious performer in the Luo District, then she might have been able to tell whether this was intended to be a representation of something unknown or uncertain, or if the circle was likely meant to be a depiction of some smooth circular object, but they did not, and she did not know enough about the story. Instead of trying to guess at it randomly, she moved on, continuing to listen around carefully.

There were only eight or so full scenes around the entirety of the Bai Ancestral Hall, and the next scene was the fifth one, illustrating each of the figures confronting the very items that they were wielding. The ring contained some kind of maddened entity, the gauntlet contained boundless mouths likely representing absolute hunger, the scythe was home to a binding presence, and the choker around the neck of the fourth figure had transformed into a single slithering tentacle of an enormous shifting beast that seemed even more horrific than Primordial Corruption, at least from what Wei Yi had known and seen of it.

Perhaps due to the particular imagery, none of the residents of the Bai District were particularly fond of hanging around this particular portion of the story, so she moved onto the sixth panel. It was split into four clear portions, with each figure being far smaller to permit this to fit in fully.

On it, the wielder of the divided the rage-filled entity in two, splitting off a certain element and accepting it while the rest was scattered into naught. The one that made use of the scythe shattered the chains that had emerged from the binding presence, binding them around that presence instead. In a similar manner, the wielder of the glove stuffed the mouths with the glove, forcing them shut as they tried to gnaw upon it but failed. Finally, the user of the choker seemed to have somehow stabilised the form of the tentacled beast, turning it into a perfect reflection and shadow of the figure, although the exact meaning was lost without a clear description of the events being anywhere to be seen.

Wei Yi had made sure to look out for some kind of plaque to look through and read alongside each scene, but neither eye nor spiritual perception were able to guide her to that which she wished to find.

‘It is certainly an interesting origin story, save for the fact that nothing regarding the district itself appears to be mentioned anywhere. Did they do it on a whim, or is this more allegorical than the scenes on the side of the Yi Ancestral Hall?’ she pondered, moving onto the seventh scene in order to get closer to a few figures that were chatting there.

As they soon proved to also have no topic of interest to her, she returned her focus onto the scenes carved from abyssal stone, finding that the penultimate image still showed nothing about the district, instead displaying the four figures defeating some kind of enormous entity and simultaneously shattering a wall of chains, not entirely unlike the one that Wei Yi possessed within her planar energy. Aside from that, however, there was little to explain the image, making her almost certain that this had to be more symbolic in nature, even if the other images were purely literal.

Returning to the same side of the Ancestral Hall as the one that she had started on, she was able to confirm that her guess about the last image also being the only one to show anything relating to the Bai District and Yi City as a whole was entirely correct.

On the last scene portrayed on this hall, she saw the four figures looking to another one, whose features were absent and who looked to be more of a summary of a human being rather than actually being one, as their body also lacked any specific details that one may find on a man or a woman. The figures had left behind the four items of importance behind themselves, with their previous shine and waves of power absent, and it was now the four figures themselves that were surrounded by power.

Meanwhile, that last entity, human or otherwise, stood with its hands together, presenting that circular object from one of the previous scenes to the four notable figures. Without a face of blatant expressions being portrayed, it was rather difficult to guess whether this was supposed to be the entity providing the circle to them, or if this was some kind of tease or even display that the circle belonged to it, but without any further context Wei Yi was forced to assume that, for whatever reason, this was a depiction of the Master of Yi City with everything about him having been removed at some point in time.

‘Certainly a strange way to do it, but the Great Bai might have had some significant influence here from a long time ago, forcing the people creating these sculptures to depict the Master of Yi City as that instead of his true appearance. If so, a shame, since seeing how the world saw him would be interesting,’ Wei Yi thought, ‘I’ll need to ask Yi Shi Ming about it after this.’

At the moment, if she attempted to reach out to the spatial spirit, it would likely work out just fine, but it would be guaranteed to increase the danger of discovery before she had even the faintest chance to snoop around in the Ancestral Hall. Something as insignificant as this could be discussed at a later time, the moment that it has a chance of being useful due to potentially needing to negotiate with the Bai District the moment that she gets out and repeats her entry in a more blatant and violent manner than this one.

‘For now, I need things from the Ancestral Hall, and I would be better off getting in there as quickly as possible and getting out as soon as I can if I don’t want to risk anything,’ she said to herself, walking up to the door of the hall and placing her hand upon them, ‘Each moment wasted is risky.’

Unlike the open doors of the Yi Ancestral Hall, which contained a number of commonly used items and arrays, as well as being regularly used by the people of the district for various purposes, this one was shut and lacked any open windows or similar parts through which she could enter unannounced – lacking any obvious locations for entry other than this one door, in fact. So far as she was able to tell, the people of the Bai District had decided that the Bai Ancestral Hall would be a less public location and would presumably visit only when they needed to.

That much could have probably been guessed by the presence of two guards in the fifth realm at either side of the door, which she now had little choice but to open.

Ideally, the door would be quiet, and lacking in any obvious tells that something was interacting with it until it would be too late for the guards to notice and attempt to discover the cause of the sudden intrusion, although she knew perfectly well that no door of this size and design could possible be quiet. It would certainly have some volume, causing attention to be brought to her current invisibility, causing the effects of the Mask of Yama to weaken, allowing her to be noticed, eventually.

In reality, the only question was whether or not it would give her enough time to loot enough things for herself, since it could give her the necessary edge for her to defeat the Greats the moment that the families that hadn’t participated in the siege initially would get to work.

She was mostly sure that she knew what she was doing, and what would happen, but she did not.

The instant that her hand touched the doors of the Bai Ancestral Hall, she felt an immense force thrust her towards the door, sticking her hand to it and making it difficult to move away from it even slightly.

It even warped the faint mist of the plane that the Mask of Yama placed her into, causing all of it to rush towards the doors, surging into the gaps between the door and the doorway, exemplifying perfectly just how powerful the force attempting to push her into the doors was. Even with every physique ability in her possession, even with her powerful physique and general ability, she could barely invest any force into anything other than resisting the attracting force of the doors, and even then, she was not succeeding.

Her feet were slowly shifting, the hard stone ground being unable to assist her in preventing her entire body from being sucked into the metal doors, with the majority of her palm and fingers quickly being consumed by the dark metal it was made from.

Perhaps the only positive thing about it so far was that there appeared to be no alerting arrays or inscriptions connected to whatever was pushing her into the Bai Ancestral Hall, as none of the guards around her responded to the sudden disturbance, nor was there any trace of the doors being opened from the inside in order to ambush her and potentially give her a chance to get out.

‘This force is at least in the sixth realm… No, maybe even the seventh! It is influencing the very space around me, even if nobody else around me can sense that…’ Wei Yi observed, doing her best to pull her hand out of the metal without coming into contact with it with any other part of her body, ‘The environment of the Yi District really made me underestimate the kind of nonsense that can occur with beings and creations of that power… If I try to attack, it might be entirely useless, or even make things worse, but… I have no real choice!’

She did want to get into the Bai Ancestral Hall, but whatever this was, it was almost certainly not going to bring her there in the way that she wanted to enter. It would either trap her in the door, send her to some prison or space in which to await punishment for her unsanctioned entry, or do something to her that she would rather avoid, whatever that may be. Instead of letting herself be pulled in without any resistance, she attempted to activate her killing will form.

There was surprisingly little challenge to doing so, but it appeared to do nothing for her, as now she simply had a clawed hand stuck in the door instead of her regular one.

‘Fuck. None of my physique abilities work, either,’ Wei Yi had naturally attempted to make use of something like the World’s Echo physique to phase through the doors before ever considering simply opening it, but it did not work then nor was it helping her now, as nothing she did to shift her position could do anything more than delay the force for a moment.

If she had been able to keep that up indefinitely, she might have had enough time to simply cultivate to the next realm and break out either with the breakthrough process or with the added strength, but rather than being consistent, the force upon her grew with every moment that she was able to put up a fight. It may have begun as a low seventh realm power, but after her attempts to keep herself from falling in it developed to a high seventh realm, and seemed to be on the brink of the eighth realm within only a few minutes. There was little that she appeared able to do against it, save for appreciating the fact that it could break through even more quickly than her and Jia Rong combined, not that it helped anything.

Since nothing seemed to work, she decided that getting out would be unlikely, and that she would be better off meeting whatever the door was attempting to bring her to on her own terms, rather than being forcefully pulled in while needlessly resisting it.

Thus, as her wrist was beginning to fall into the door, she simply leapt at it.

Without her resistance, the force was able to act at its full strength, and she was flung right into the metal, and right through it. It was as if she had simply passed through air, as it did not even feel like a solid object the moment that she had decided to go through it. What she saw on the other side was also not what should have been there.

In addition, there were just a few things that would blatantly never appear on the inside of any civilized building that she might not even need to ponder before understanding that they did not belong inside of a structure.

Her spiritual perception had been unable to go through the doors or the walls of the structure, so she did not know exactly what this particular Ancestral Hall contained, but she knew enough about them to be able to guess a few things. The structure was naturally one with walls, a floor, and a roof, and it would hold various tomes and materials from the ancestors of the Bai family. Due to the place appearing to be shut for the moment, there wouldn’t be anyone on the inside, but there would still be no plants or moss growing on the inside that shows blatant disregard for the ancestors.

Despite that, what she saw on the inside differed quite significantly.