V4C48: Preliminary Alliance

“Fuck.”

“Anything else, or are we going to get along now?” Wei Yi asked the Chao Patriarch, who looked down upon the broken table in despair.

“This makes no sense… Have you been eating miracle fruits your entire life?”

“I know someone who has, but no, that’s not the case. However, you’re changing the subject again. Will the Ascendant’s Arbiters, the Bai District, and your Chao District be able to unite together and oppose the Great Families on good terms, or will you make things far more complicated than they ever need to be?” she asked again.

“Even then, the peak of the fourth realm…”

Wei Yi had been at the sixth stage of Active Core when she had departed to the Bai District, but now that she had arrived at the Chao District, her cultivation had risen all the way to the peak of the fourth realm during the journey, surprising the Bai Patriarch each time that she had a breakthrough. With one more breakthrough, she would be able to reach the fifth realm, significantly advancing her overall power, but she was not only reluctant to act upon it now, but she also found that the plentiful resources that she had been consuming on her way over were quickly proving to be less and less effective for her.

It was getting ridiculous at this point, since she was already actively feeding upon the energy of the sixth realm for the sake of cultivation, and there wasn’t much for the seventh realm and above out there at the moment.

If she needed that to go past the fifth realm, she would need to find some otherworldly gift just for the sake of cultivating further, putting herself at greater potential risk just to have some chance of advancement. Fortunately enough for her, it was the first four realms that relied the most on increasing the quantity of one’s energy, while the fifth, sixth and seventh did more to strengthen it instead. It would still require for her to collect more energy than she already had, but it would be easier.

Even then, she was already gobbling up enough pills and resources to supply a hundred more people just to advance by a few stages. Adding more would be rather terrifying.

“Do stop already. I’ll just borrow some things from you, we’ll start trading, I’ll occupy a spatial stabilisation point, and then you might occasionally need to come out to look strong. That’s it.”

The Chao Patriarch still looked hesitant, especially when he glanced at his hand that was still marked by the shards of the shattered glass table, but he eventually sighed and relented, “If that is all that your Arbiters want from the Chao District, then it can be permitted. If we are attacked as a result of your actions, your Arbiters must fight alongside us. If you wish to make us participate in any battle that is not in our interest, we must be rewarded appropriately!”

“Again, your heritage interests me greatly. Were you raised by the Chen family?” Wei Yi inquired jokingly, although she returned to seriousness the moment that the Patriarch seemed intent to say something, “If you haven’t noticed, the quantity of planar energy in the world has risen quite significantly. That was due to me, my actions, and my victories against the Great Families. If you assist us in any way – although the spatial nexus is mandatory – then the whole district will benefit from more energy, a higher quality of energy, and even the potential for beneficial mutations within any materials that may be being grown and harvested here. Also, out of everyone, you’re the only one that would ever really need to participate in combat unless the Greats are chasing down every last one of us.”

“So long as these conditions aren’t broken, I shall agree. However, you must stop with the accusations regarding my ancestry.”

“No.”

“Just because you have a stronger arm and faster reaction time than I do, it doesn’t mean that you can do as you like, Ascendant. I can defeat you with ease, and end your entire rebellion against… the Great Families? Are they a kind of group whose name should be known?”

“Of course not, so that is why you should… no, I will prompt all of the district to say it all at once. I think it would be highly amusing,” Wei Yi grinned, leaping onto the sandstone wall of the Chao District and touching one of the chains that connected to the inscriptions of the district, “You wouldn’t mind if I announce something to the district, would you?”

She asked the question, but she didn’t bother to confirm it with him before activating the inscription of the Chao District and then further amplifying her voice to ensure that there wouldn’t be a single person out there that would be able to miss her words. Although she could do as she had in the Bai District, she thought that this wouldn’t be the best idea, so she instead decided to provoke interest instead.

With a smile, she spread her voice to the entire district, “The Great Families.”

Wei Yi did not continue immediately after that, instead keeping quiet as she waited for her words to be processed by the people of the district.

It took a while, but she could soon hear and sense most people looking to one another or otherwise muttering the words to themselves, trying to understand just what someone could gain from suddenly sharing such a cryptic thing. The silence gave them no indication of any continuation to the message, and so conversation was bound to erupt, especially when the words were tinged with Law.

As they spoke to one another, the Ascendant grinned while she pondered just how the Greats must be feeling as their method of observing the world must have pointed out to them how their name was mentioned time and time again.

“Have you ever wondered where the majesty of the past had gone? Where the powerful planar energy, incredible beasts and spatial materials had gone, and why they had disappeared?” she asked again, allowing for another pause while she looked over the district and saw a number of figures emerge from their homes to see just who was speaking to them and why, “I have an answer for you. The Great Families have been capturing the energy of the world and using it to fuel their anchors, creating enormous numbers of children that they then sacrificed in order to provide a single pair with more than thirty anchors each. They take away techniques, materials, and people to keep themselves in power.”

Had the district had an inscription for the purpose of illusory manifestation, she would have filled all of it with her memories as to give her words more believability, but she needed to make do with what was available. As such, she limited herself to pauses and broad statements to bring up intrigue in a way that couldn’t be argued against without a full understanding of the true situation, and even then, she said nothing false.

Sure, the anchor energy that she obtained was present in all anchors, and the otherworldly demons with unique anchors had even more points of energy than that, but she had never said that this was something unique to the Greats. Other factions also obviously hid away techniques, but that did not contradict the basic statement that she had made. Materials, people and ancient entities were also obviously captured by them and others alike, and given their strength, the Greats had likely done a lot to wipe out the remnants of the ancient entities within the world.

Their Testament also likely required plenty of spatial materials in order to be created, not to mention all of the functions that it possesses due to the arrays within.

“The Chao District, with the endorsement of the Chao Patriarch, will fight against them alongside the Ascendant’s Arbiters. You will receive techniques, resources, and defensive assistance from them, and once the Great Families are defeated, the districts of Yi City will be able to reunite with one another as they had been a million years ago,” Wei Yi proclaimed, “I’ll let him tell you that.”

She tossed the chains that she had been using to interact with the inscription over to the Patriarch, although to him it just manifested as a spiritual energy link to the inscription being passed along to him, which didn’t do him much good when none of the energy necessary to activate the inscription was included. Although he did have a moment to question just how she had been able to make use of the inscription in such a state, he was forced to quickly focus on the usage of the inscription itself to ensure that the people weren’t simply left in the dark.

While Wei Yi carefully monitored what he was saying, just to ensure that he didn’t mess anything up, intentionally or otherwise, she turned to Jia Rong, appearing at her side without a sound.

“Hey. How did it go?”

The demonic woman trembled for a moment, both from her sudden movement and the gazes of the two strongest figures in the Chao District being strictly focused upon them, but she was able to reply, “I managed to defeat one of them easily… I had no idea that my body had gone to such an extent that the strongest people of one of these cities-”

“Districts. They are all part of a single Yi City, so it wouldn’t make sense to have cities in a city.”

“Right. I had no idea that I’d be able to accomplish that without ever realising that he’d begun… I had noticed that he had begun to push only by his muscles bulging,” Jia Rong muttered, “By the way, is that what most people look like in the world today? I mean, apart from Great Dark and Great Light.”

“Like what? If you mean the muscles, then no, that’s mostly the Chao District’s people, if it’s the skin, then that’s what northerners look like, and if it’s something else, I can’t really guess what you mean.”

“I mean… well… um…” Jia Rong stood there for a while, fidgeting and nibbling at her lip, before she got closer and lowered her voice, “Do you mind if I whisper it to you? I… I don’t really feel comfortable saying it in front of everyone.”

That had a few implications, but for the sake of the demonic woman getting more open about any issues, she got closer and surrounded the two of them with a basic barrier to block out any unwanted listeners, “Alright, I blocked away and attempts to listen in on us, so feel free to share whatever matter concerns you. I cannot promise a good answer or solution to any problems, but I will do my best for you.”

“T-Thanks… Well, I’m at that age, right?”

“Oh, I think I know a few places where this might be going. Is this something that would be better discussed inside?”

“No, not if there’s a barrier… My mother and father, they had said that when I grow up, I’d probably find a boyfriend, and… hm…” the demonic woman struggled to get the words out, but that did narrow things down to a certain extent.

Seeing as the Chao Patriarch was doing well enough on his own and didn’t require interference, Wei Yi brought her a little further away from the walls and then transmitted a request for her forces to move away to give them a little more space. Even if it was something minor, there was no particular reason to embarrass the woman by letting a number of people to stare upon her.

They’d gone towards the Arbiters, so the other group, consisting of the Bai District’s forces, who had emerged and had been rather surprised to witness the situation conclude seemingly without them needing to take a single action. Due to the urgency with which they had moved towards this district in the first place, it had been rather natural to presume that they would need to partake in some kind of combat here, and yet all that they were faced with was an alliance being formed with them, the Chao, and the Ascendant’s Arbiters.

Still, when they saw that the Arbiters took a step back, they did the same, with the Bai Patriarch retreating to the position of the forces from his district.

“Which part of that is troubling you?”

“Uhm… Are- no, am I supposed to be finding men like that handsome? I… I don’t really see anything like that…”

‘Oh boy. Have I accidentally flooded her mind with my wayward thoughts, or did I just happen upon another person that happens to have those kinds of preferences?’ Wei Yi wondered, being fully aware that if the theory of Dao having branches was indeed correct, she was almost certainly comprehending the lesbian branch of it.

She also knew that her Dao could influence others without them or her even being aware of it, so it was hardly impossible that a girl that had spent far too long underground was driven towards particular kinds of thoughts as a result of her undesired influence.

“Alright, let me first ask something. You were seventeen when you were locked away, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Did this matter never occur to you? Puberty occurs from twelve to sixteen or eighteen, so these kinds of matters usually come to one’s attention.”

“We lived far away from the villages around us, so I didn’t often interact with kids my age… I had seen a few people when my mother was healing them, but I never tried speaking to them… Was I supposed to have been talking to people?” Jia Rong suddenly realised, looking at her with alarm, “My mother did tell me to talk to some of them, but I was always too afraid to do so…”

‘That is just… What kind of unfortunate life were you living before you were imprisoned? Even I managed to converse with some people, even if some were absolute perverts like that Yi Kun… Hold on, have I been surrounded by people with the same preferences as mine since the Yi District without realising it?’ Wei Yi recalled the tailor girl, Yi Kun, and a number of other figures who had all expressed an interest in those kinds of things with various degrees of subtlety, ‘Has someone been forcing the Dao of Lust onto me all along? If so, targeting a teenager is fucked up, just so you know, mysterious figure.’

“Don’t start throwing the blame at me, girl. I think that it’s just your world, since I only got here later and you still had a whole bunch of appropriately-aged suitors after you.”

A figure with hair covering their right eye and revealing their violet left eye muttered to herself, looking down at the world below her. She gripped a katana with a black blade tightly as she looked out into the void, her brow furrowing while she saw something that most did not.

“You see, people have preferences when it comes to their partners. For most, they prefer the opposite sex, since that is typically the only reasonable approach for having heirs, children, and just generally getting the most out of things,” explained Wei Yi, trying to skirt around the kinds of topics that she certainly wouldn’t have avoided had this person been someone that didn’t freeze in time in their head, “However, it is also possible to have an interest in both, or the same sex. That being said, don’t jump to conclusions.”

“What conclusions?”

“Take your time to get used to the world and explore things on your own. Perhaps this kind of person is not one of interest to you, or perhaps you are finding it difficult to focus on anything even vaguely romantic due to the current state of the world and your own body, or maybe you are focusing too much on someone and that is twisting your view of things.”

“I could never focus too much on my saviour!” Jia Rong exclaimed, looking up at her with gleaming eyes.

“I didn’t even say anything specific, so don’t blame me for making assumptions.”

“I’d never blame you. So, um, if it is possible that I, uh, like girls, then-”

“Don’t jump to conclusions, Jia Rong. Also, we will talk about this later, since I doubt that this is the right place for this whether or not I have done literally everything possible to obscure a single trace of what we are saying to one another,” Wei Yi said, gently placing a finger on the demonic woman’s lips while she turned and dispelled the barrier she had made, “So, Chao Patriarch, will you be showing me to your treasury any time soon?”

“You hid away and didn’t even give me a chance to read your lips? How am I supposed to know that you didn’t plan something nefarious?” the Patriarch of the Chao District asked back.

“I had already requested you to stop, did I not? I can break through on this very spot, right now, and I can guarantee at least one major explosion as a result of it, as well as the possibility of some insane searing mark or other phenomenon.”

“That is not a common threat in this part of the world.”

“Don’t really care. The point is that the alliance has been made, and I think that I and everyone else deserve the right to privacy when we want it. If you want to know about every little detail of what your allies do, I wonder how you’re able to rest when there must be plenty of enemies to be listening to at all times,” Wei Yi said, “Where is the treasury of the Chao District?”

The Patriarch huffed and shook his head, but still replied, “I can show it to you, but to none of your Arbiters.”

Since that was a random and arbitrary decision when considering the fact that she was the leader of the Ascendant’s Arbiters, and would thus have the freedom and ability to share information with whoever she wanted once she obtained it, she shrugged and didn’t contest it. It was clear that the Patriarch of the Chao District had spent too much time in the Ping District at some point of his life, and that he wouldn’t be getting better any time soon, so she wouldn’t be bothering him about it too much unless he got particularly annoying about something.

It was easier, for now, to let him take her to the place of interest to her, then slowly develop his trust in the Arbiters as he realised that they didn’t need to steal anything from him and that they might even be more wealthy and capable than the Chao District was overall.

“Alright, Jia Rong, we can discuss the earlier topic at a later time. For now, stay beside Great Dark,” Wei Yi instructed the demonic woman, turning to the Bai Patriarch, “And your district’s forces may follow along to a spatial nexus in the district, which is bound to be close to the Ancestral Hall and also the treasury, since it is likely inside.”

“We shall follow, then,” the Bai Patriarch nodded, telling his forces to follow him.

So that everyone didn’t have to go past the protective barriers of the district and leap onto walls, the Chao Patriarch led them to one of the entrances to the district, assigning a number of guards to keep an eye on them while they were inside of the district. Nobody cared to point out the insufficiency of the guards against someone in the seventh realm, as well as a figure that was capable of going up against the sixth realm while only being in the fourth, since they knew that it would just lead to more time being wasted.

They were led through the sandstone streets of the district to the Ancestral Hall, but they stopped at the open square beside the hall where an inconspicuous point in the ground was highlighted by the Chao Patriarch.

All of the troops from the Bai District had little idea what the point was supposed to be, since it differed quite significantly from what they had seen at the Bai District. Even then, they hadn’t seen the usage of that other node, and thus only the Chao Patriarch and Wei Yi had any idea what the usage of the stabilisation node was, and it was only the latter one of them that approached it and kneeled beside it, channelling some energy towards it and feeling for the chains of Law that surrounded it.

“Has all of the sand worn this thing away, or… ah, I see, so… Hm… I don’t recall this with certainty, but wasn’t this one of the last northern districts constructed by the Master of Yi City?” Wei Yi asked the Patriarch.

“It should have been. Is there some issue that your low cultivation cannot handle?”

“What an antagonistic person you are. Had this been the golden age of Yi City, I do not doubt that all of the other districts would have been intending to come over and capture you for their own sake, and Kong Shi Meng himself would have been tempted to assist them in that regard. Perhaps the Chao family could have been replaced with a Wei family,” she shook her head, returning her attention to the stabilisation node, “Now, I think that if I just manipulate this part and adjust to a different structure, then…”

She licked her drying lips as she infused her plentiful energy into the ground, igniting the many channels for her energy beneath the ground.

As they reached some level of activation, she also infused a portion of the Kong Prison Realm’s aura into the stabilisation node, sufficient to allow for the node to affect and connect with the transportation network that she was rapidly creating through the spatial realm. However, she limited the quantity that she directed into it as to prevent any excess aura from leaking out and potentially alerting one of the Greats, if there was one in the vicinity or if they would then pass through the district and notice it.

Due to her already doing something similar in the Bai District, the people from there finally had an idea of what she was up to, and what the point in the ground was, although that hardly explained why she was doing it.

At the last district, she had just activated the point but did little else, so it naturally raised questions.

“Chao Patriarch, Bai Patriarch, would you object if all our factions were able to move between our territories freely, trading and sharing in everything we have?” Wei Yi asked, taking a step back from the stabilisation node, “If any of our territories is attacked, the other two should come to assist. If a harvest is particularly fruitful, the other may come to share. That would be fair, don’t you think?”

“You have a spatial realm that is sufficiently stable,” the Bai Patriarch simply stated, “I would be interested to see it.”

“Don’t worry, you will not. Not from here, at the very least, or else the Greats would be able to seep in without any issue the moment that they slipped past one of you,” she smiled, “However, if you come through to Paragon, perhaps you will be permitted to take a look.”

Without another word, she prompted the stabilisation node to open up a spatial gateway, causing a rift of white and red to appear within the air, slowly widening further and further until it was possible to see something through it. Air and sand blew through the gateway, then back out as the air on both sides stabilised, allowing for the opening in the air to widen much more quickly, reaching the ground in no time.

On the other side, one could see a few more gateways, although all but one was currently so small that only an ordinary fly could pass through it. Through the gateway that was open as widely as possible, the territory of the Bai District could be seen, with only a little bit of sunlight falling upon it as a result of the damaged canopy above the district. However, the primary focus was naturally on everything around the gateways, that being the oddly rectangular stone structures, the blue planar lamps, and all of the people that were observing the sudden opening of two more gateways within their central plaza.

Most of them did not have the dark skin of the north, nor did they look particularly sweaty despite the vast wall of sand clearly visible behind the walls of the fortress.

“Through here, you may enter Paragon, the fortress of the Ascendant’s Arbiters, and the ancient place in which the Master of Yi City assisted in wars against the nations that would become minor districts, as well as where he had defended against all kinds of powerful entities seeking to take down the territory of humanity,” Wei Yi introduced the people watching, pointing towards the other open gateway, “If you go in there, you can come back to the Bai District freely, although if you wish to see where the other gateways lead, you will need to give a good reason for them being opened for you. Any more questions?”

There were certainly those who were interested to learn more, and they would receive their answers in time, but for now, she took a step through the gateway to prove the fact that it was real. Her foot passed through easily, as did the rest of her body. In an instant, she had crossed countless miles.