V4C64: Town for the Demons

There was not much of note within Luo Na’s speech, nor any particularly surprising responses from the audience. She spoke about a fabricated event that had led to the previous Patriarch being unable to maintain his duties, the decision that she would take over, that she and the guardians would assist the Ascendant’s Arbiters, and that they would be contributing only what was necessary.

That was to prevent anyone from panicking or questioning why this series of events suddenly led to the Arbiters gaining a significant degree of power from the district. Furthermore, only a few could ever know exactly what was absolutely necessary for the district or the Arbiters, and their number would only be limited to Luo Na, Wei Yi, the guardians, and perhaps a few others that would need to get involved. To the people of the Luo District, all that was necessary could range from simply standing by in the right place, to sacrificing their lives for the sake of their district and the Arbiter’s survival, depending on their own understanding and perception.

In fact, if necessary, they could even claim that one situation would be the other, and that could motivate the people of the Luo District to act when they otherwise wouldn’t.

Of course, she wasn’t too interested in doing such a thing unless it was an absolute emergency. The usage of such tactics had been one of the many things that had pissed her off about the Great Families, so she was not going to employ them any more than was necessary, as per her own beliefs.

“As the new Matriarch of the Luo District, I will not disturb the-”

‘You know what, I’ll step in around about now. Would you mind?’ Wei Yi sent her voice to Luo Na, finding that despite the suddenness of her voice, the Matriarch had no response at all, as if she had not heard it at all.

“- current proceedings of the Luo District, but I will be paying attention to our situation. Once I see something that does require change, I shall implement it. Now, I would like to introduce someone.”

At her words, the crowd suddenly had one less participant, although nobody noticed it as their attention was captured entirely by the sudden ignition of the bright cosmic light in the middle of the plaza in which they had gathered. It surged into the air, soaring all the way into the sky before individual particles of silver and crimson dropped from the sky, forming themselves into a gateway within the air, forming a large circle partly embedded in the ground without a single obvious thing to be able to support them in place.

When the gateway reached the point at which it was nearly without gaps, a figure finally reappeared upon the plaza, going through the particles of silver and crimson as if she was emerging from the gateway itself, having travelled here from afar. In a way, that wasn’t entirely incorrect, but most of the people present weren’t aware of this.

“You could have mentioned who you will be introducing, but nonetheless…” Wei Yi muttered, with most failing to overhear her remark, although she raised her voice promptly, “My name is Wei Yi, the-”

“You’re that Ascendant person, right?” a young man at the back called out.

“Oh, you happen to know me? Right, you were at the Chao District, so I suppose that you could share a few things with your friends if they decided not to attend,” she suggested, “Anyway, for those that did not hear me, I am Wei Yi, Ascendant and Conqueror, leader of the Ascendant’s Arbiters. In the Chao and Bai Districts, I have assisted the Patriarchs and opened up gateways that allow anyone to travel between the districts within an instant, passing right through a spatial gateway. Now, I wish to offer the same for the Luo District.”

“This has already been discussed and will occur. We intend to have a very amicable relationship with the Ascendant and her Arbiters,” Luo Na added.

“Furthermore, there are two things that I wish to say to each district, so let me first open the gateway for you,” Wei Yi turned around and reached out with her left hand, focusing a vast amount of energy into it not just to empower the spatial stabilisation point, but also in order to cause a series of vague chains to appear around her arm, “Make sure you aren’t standing in the way of the gateway.”

A few people had to step back in order to avoid the particles of silver and crimson, which they had wanted to touch, inspect, look at or do something entirely different with – one did attempt to swallow the particle of light without realising that it was just an illusion put in place for the Ascendant to seem a little more impressive. After a little while, everyone stupid enough to stand near a spatial gateway opening point moved away, and she was able to trigger the opening with a shift of the many chains that she had manifested.

Just as the spatial rift itself formed, someone did attempt to leap in, but just before they could come into contact with the spatial disturbance, they suddenly collided with a chain that forced them to bounce right back, with them not having enough time to get back in before it opened.

The gateway opened horizontally, showing them a landscape of plain rectangular structures from which a number of people observed the opening of the new gateway to the district. Three more gateways could be seen, although one of them was sealed tight for all but the Arbiters and thus unavailable to the people of the three districts currently linked to one another via the spatial connections.

“What you see on the other side is Paragon, an ancient fortress of the Master of Yi City. It is there that the Great Families had attempted to attack, and that is where a great number of them fell against me and my allies,” Wei Yi stated, “You are free to visit, although you will be observed carefully to ensure that you violate none of our laws, which are shared with the districts in the vast majority of cases. As for the two things that I wished to state, I will begin with that which will apply to the larger number of you – in fact, this should apply to every single one of you that has ever wished to study a technique or cultivation method, whether or not you wish to actively pursue the path of cultivation all the way to the ninth realm, which will be possible for us all eventually.”

As she spoke, she entered the gateway, reaching out again and willing the shape of the gateways to change slightly, temporarily preventing anyone from passing through but amplifying her voice.

On the other side of the other two gateways, which became spherical and dedicated to projecting her instead of displaying what one should truly see through them, people in the Chao and Bai Districts were already watching, and were waiting to see what it was that the Ascendant would say that had prompted their earlier announcement.

“Again, hello everyone. I wish to present to all of you some information that you may wish to hear. Within Paragon, right over there, exists a library that you may freely enter and peruse certain sections without a single payment or struggle. Therein you may find the techniques that I and my Arbiters have studied and developed, and you may learn any of them. Cultivation techniques, combat methods, materials on the great arts, and quite a few unorthodox methods can all be found there, and some of them can bring you all the way to the seventh realm, the Oblivion Halos realm, at the very least,” Wei Yi presented the library that had melded with the Planar Continents to all that were looking, “Once I finish my announcement, please do come and check it out even if you don’t end up taking anything.

“Any book you check out can be studied in an instant for all information and comprehension within to be delivered to you, although I would strongly advise that you do not attempt to learn more than one or two. Once you feel a headache or any kind of mental struggle, back out and digest everything that you have gained, or else you will suffer and neither I nor my Arbiters will be held responsible. Reminders will be included inside just in case you didn’t hear my reminder.”

The gateways in the districts had been modified, but the ones in the desert fortress had not been, and thus Wei Yi was able to see the reaction people had to her words. Exactly as expected, the vast majority were extremely excited at the prospect, since one of the things that had held back many since the beginning of cultivation – presumably – was the absence of sufficiently powerful techniques that would allow them to take advantage of their bodies and abilities. If they could get whatever they want and learn it instantly… that would be immense.

“Some of you may think that this is all that you need to hear, and while it may be true, I would encourage every single one of you to stay. That does include you, young girl in the Bai District, who probably should take care with those wounds. They don’t look good, and you can permanently lose an arm if you aren’t careful.”

Over in the Bai District, the girl being addressed suddenly found a number of people looking towards her with concerned expressions, offering her various pills and methods to allow her to heal herself while also suggesting to guide her to her parents, or two whichever place she was residing at if she did not have parents due to whatever circumstances. She was rather overwhelmed at first, but as some of the scarier looking people backed down, she felt far more comfortable with taking some of their offered items.

Once she was assisted by some people and consumed a pill that caused her numerous wounds to begin healing slowly, the Ascendant was able to return her attention to the announcements she had wished to make.

“Alright, now I shall explain the second point. Tell me, what do you know of otherworldly demons?”

Everyone visibly froze for a moment, looking around in slight confusion and suspicion. The sudden mention of otherworldly demons didn’t immediately let any of them know what was going on, even if there were any actual otherworldly demons listening to her right now, since that label was effectively created by her, but a clue could still be obtained.

“I do realise that even if you lot were to speak, all that this would result in would be three people in three districts, at the least, speaking over one another, so do stop if you were going to say anything. Otherworldly demons, as I call them, are people that have generally been forced to appear in this world without full knowledge of what they were getting into, whether due to some old man giving them a card or because of some kind of system that they do not understand. When they appear in our world, they will generally be lost and confused, but they will receive a power that typically surpasses that of normal people of the Planar Continents.

“You might think that this is a blessing, but even the most powerful and pleasant abilities come with a terrible downside. All otherworldly gifts that I know of come with a curse that causes one’s mind to deteriorate until they become mad, being driven to kill and slaughter in a needless attempt to become the strongest, only to perish due to the very causes that had sent them to this world in the first place,” Wei Yi said, carefully looking around in an attempt to spot anyone with unusual reactions, “If they perish, their otherworldly gifts will disappear and go to another person, corrupting them even further, which is a terrible outcome. As such, since they come here without meaning to do so, and since they are able to be as reasonable as we are, I think that we should let them recover from their curse.

“For that reason, I will not encourage any of you to be hostile against otherworldly demons. On the contrary, I will encourage all of you to be kind and respectful, and for any otherworldly demons in the audience to not be afraid to reveal themselves. If you come to Paragon and call out for Yi Shi Ming or Wei Yi, we will speak with you and help you. I can remove the curse upon you, and I can allow you to use your otherworldly gift without any cost to your sanity.

“Furthermore, I will be creating a settlement wherein you may live, share the culture of your worlds, and speak with people with similar experiences, as well as those that may struggle to survive in the districts. It shall be founded there,” she pointed to the space behind herself, wherein a map appeared, “Between the Chao, Bai and Luo Districts, in the gap between the Bai, Ping and Luo Districts, right there. If you struggle with geography, you may speak to any of the locals, and I am sure they will assist you. In a situation where they do not, I will make sure to reprimand them, or delegate this to someone in the district. Either way, please do go to the Dimensional Domain, as I shall call it, wherein you may find hope.”

If someone from the audience came out and announced their status, that would be particularly helpful, but she didn’t particularly require an immediate otherworldly demon to experiment upon. The reason behind the announcement wasn’t purely for experimentation, since she had people to check her theories out on already.

The acquisition of the Purifier’s Seal made it so that she had the potential, the incredibly slight potential, of separating the azure light from an otherworldly gift. With that, she could easily allow otherworldly demons to cultivate smoothly without harm to themselves, and so she would obtain something equivalent to an army of people with incredible abilities. Anyone that she couldn’t convince to turn to her side she could slaughter and then separate their otherworldly gifts from their azure lights safely, and so it would eliminate most danger related to them.

All that she needed was the time and effort to understand exactly how to apply her newly acquired otherworldly gift.

“Please, if you wish to retain your sanity, even if all you would like to do is sit around and contribute nothing to the Planar Continents, come to the Ascendant’s Arbiters and let us help you. If you are not an otherworldly demon, but happen to meet one, direct them to us. Do not dare to mislead them, and do not dare to steal their gift. You will gain nothing, and you will be punished; it is not worth it, no matter what your situation is. On the contrary, if you assist them, we can help you too.

“In particular, anyone associated with, and suffering as a result of the Ping District’s criminal elements will find that they will not need to suffer for much longer. Await good news, cultivate, and make your family, your district, and everyone relying on you proud. If we work together, Yi City may be reborn, and we will all be better off. Thank you.”

She wasn’t sure why she had ended up speaking in such a sentimental fashion, but from the looks being directed at her, and the sudden resolute expressions upon the people of the three districts, as well as Paragon, it seemed that it worked well enough. Things like that could obviously be faked, but what could never be obscured was the fact that the blackened crimson presence around her had grown immensely with each word spoke, to the point that her surroundings had lost most of the colour that they originally had.

If she was to fight the Patriarchs and Matriarchs allied with her within this environment, she might even be able to win without too many injuries.

As for the name of the town, the Dimensional Domain, she was mostly looking to simply add to the list of impressive sounding names in the Planar Continents without going for another one word name. Whether or not she succeeded will be seen once it becomes discussed more commonly, like Paragon is slowly turning into a topic for common discussion in the Bai and Chao Districts, but it would be some time until that happened.

To her, it wasn’t too significant what the actual name of the territory was, since she had enough other things to name with more attention than this new town, or minor district as it would be more accurate to label it due to its position within Yi City. All that was needed was for it to be sufficiently attention grabbing for anyone that heard it to be immediately intrigued by it, even if they do not find a reason to pay attention to it otherwise. At that point, whether they wanted to reveal themselves or not, they might go there anyway, and from there finding out who was and wasn’t an otherworldly demon would be easy enough with either the aid of Aimi Miyu, or with one of the otherworldly gifts that Wei Yi has, or by some odd behaviour inherent to the demons.

There were quite a few things that they would do in response to a variety of situations which would never even occur to the people of the Planar Continents. Before most of their customs that she was willing to allow to spread did so, encountering anything from the other world and being familiar how to deal with it would give away that they were either otherworldly demons, or that they were very familiar with their customs for some other reason. Any one of them with even a hint of sense would avoid falling for such blatant traps, however.

Her spiritual perception would be able to see things – rather, not see the things that should be there – that they thought would act entirely normally. This had been something that she had already confirmed with her current otherworldly demon acquaintances, so she knew that most of them wouldn’t be able to notice anything amiss with any physical otherworldly gifts that they might possess.

Then, there was also the chance that they would have the foolish notion that they were somehow superior to all other beings in the world, which wasn’t necessarily unique to those from other worlds. If they decided that it was their right to rule over the Dimensional Domain, then they would be very easy to discover and thus deal with appropriately. In their case, some of the other otherworldly demons may even be rather keen to stop them from wreaking havoc, so she might be able to bring them onto her side just by offering them assistance with keeping the peace against a bunch of fools that have lost reason before the azure light could even affect them.

Since she did not have much more to say, Wei Yi bowed out and vanished from the spot, making use of the Past’s Call ability to shift herself to the outskirts of the Luo District.

Only a few steps away from her, the crack in the ground where she had found the tomb of the Luo family remained mostly as it had been, with nobody appearing to have disturbed it since her visit. It wasn’t exactly where she wished to be, but it was the only memorable enough location that she could reference for Past’s Call, so she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. Journeys between districts took little time anyway, so it wasn’t like she was losing much of it.

When she did arrive where she had wanted to be, at the point that she had indicated on the map to the crowds of the three districts under the unity of her faction, she was greeted with a few familiar faces. Soon enough, that number would become four, and an annoying blight might be removed from the world, but before then, she would need to get to work.

“Wei Yi, hey! How did it go?” Miyu called out, jumping up and down on the spot as she waved.

“H-Hey? Is that an otherworldly thing, or a modern world thing?” Jia Rong asked, one hand casually resting beside the base of her horns as she occasionally scratched them.

“Both, from what I understand,” Fu Zan said, sitting on the dirt without much care for his clothing. It both made sense, as he was the one to create it and could thus ignore the costs of creating a new set of robes for himself, but on the other, someone that had made every single piece of his current outfit should be all the more aware of the difficulties in creating and maintaining it. Still, he wasn’t bothered, so Wei Yi wouldn’t be either.

Standing by them was Luo Lia Kun and Great Dark, with Great White remaining in the mines to train up further. Additionally, a few workers, builders, gardeners and more were brought out of Paragon, with most of them having rather low realms and thus requiring the assistance of artefacts to have been able to reach this place in such a short time.

“Good evening, everyone. I hope things haven’t been going too poorly without me.”

“How can something go poorly when nothing has happened?” Luo Lia Kun questioned, “You had said that we are going to build a small town, but mentioned nothing at all about the layout, appearance, intention or anything else of the sort.”

“That’s mostly because you aren’t actually going to be building anything. This will be mostly me attempting to experiment with a few things that I have discovered, and if it does not work out, then we can call upon a few builders to assist us. Fortunately enough, I have previously studied a few things on architecture – by accident and out of boredom, mostly – so you lot won’t even need to be providing that kind of guidance.”

“Then… what is it that we are going to be doing?”

“Depends on what I can’t achieve without some form of outside assistance. Just stand by and feel free to have a chat with anyone else… although I don’t know why I am telling you that, you lot have autonomy…” Wei Yi muttered to herself while she took a step away and examined the land that she had chosen.

The others glanced at one another, then some shrugged while others simply returned to focus on whatever they were doing prior to her arrival. Fu Zan appeared to be daydreaming, Jia Rong split her time between paying attention to Wei Yi and daydreaming, and Miyu was entirely unabashed about focusing purely on staring at the Ascendant… mostly because she was still under the impression that her actions were somehow difficult to perceive. There had been attempts to tell her, but she apparently reacted like some kind of stereotypical character popular in Antanord, so she must have somehow been made oblivious to her own behaviour no matter what.

It was odd, and that was all that Wei Yi could really say about it.

Rather than this, her current focus was upon the terrain, or, more specifically, a very specific square region of relatively flat land before her.

She was hardly a professional builder, as she lacked all but the most basic experience in construction and had only acquired her architectural knowledge from books that she had studied during her years in the Yi District, which was why she was not intending to construct anything in the ordinary manner. Instead, she would employ the insights that she had gained from her usage of Law to forcefully cause Luo Na to win and then rise to the seventh realm, as well as the other that led to the death of the otherworldly demon seemingly made with her blood, or someone near to her, at least.

Obviously, making use of the full extent of Law would be unwise, since the drain upon her very bodily stability was not one that seemed to rely on her strength or physique. By using Law, she was interfering with, or affecting, the very basic nature of the world itself, and that was not something that needed to rely on her cultivation to fight back in order to provide a sufficient cost.

Instead, she intended to simplify her command to as simple an idea as possible, to minimize the draw upon the Dao of Law, and thus allow the world to bear the majority of the cost while she would enjoy the benefits. It had the potential of allowing her to optimize the usage of her energy by a significant degree, as she would only need to will for a residence to appear and all of the details could manifest themselves, but she knew that this would not be anywhere near as simple as she would have liked it to be. Prime amongst the issues that she would face was the fact that the more detail, the more words she tried to force into an instruction, the less safe it would be.

‘Eh, might as well try something to see what I have to work from,’ she shrugged, reaching out with her left hand and focusing upon the chains of Law, ‘This area is deemed to be under my control by the others, so that should be helpful.’

Even though her stage of the Dao of Law was not increasing, her comprehension was still rising, and thus finding the chains was taking less and less time with each attempt.

Once she did have them, all that she really needed to do was provide an instruction with which she would change the world, and with which it would know how to be shaped according to her will. In this, the Shaper’s Grasp physique ability and the concepts that allow it to function would also be helpful, although not for the most basic of changes that she was intending to inflict- no, provoke onto the world. The Shaper’s Grasp was most efficient and effective at finer changes, not at shaping the very world.

She slightly shifted her hand and then, with a deep breath, she shifted the chains of Law.

“Rise!” she commanded, finding that her voice seemed to transform upon her instruction, as if she had tapped into the will of the world itself. It was a rather impressive sound effect, if nothing else, and could be of use in psychological warfare.

Although she had not given much in the way of detail for the command, she did impose her idea upon the world, and thus it wasn’t the entire world that attempted to rise, only a certain square region. It rose out of the ground with a rumble, with flat walls on all four sides appearing as the lower layers of the region were revealed, including a small quantity of soft stone at the very bottom. Through the way in which it rose, a certain portion was left behind in order to create the foundations for the thing that rose.

To call it a house would be silly, and to even imply that it could be lived in was rather difficult. There was no door, no windows, and even the small portions of open space on the inside weren’t suitable for inhabitation. That much was to be expected, but the actions of Miyu were less easy to deal with. While she was examining her creation, the otherworldly demon suddenly leapt in.

“Oh, what are you doing? Are you trying to set up a house? Is this like a city building game, or is this part of this world’s abilities? When can I do this kind of thing?”

“… I know you didn’t intend to do this, but you have slightly ruined my focus. You have wanted to be able to freely make use of your abilities and to cultivate to the same level that I am currently at, right?” Wei Yi asked, immediately receiving an enthusiastic nod in return, “Alright, will you agree to participate in an experiment to rid you of the corrupting influence that is the azure light? It may be unpleasant, and it may hurt quite a bit, but it will be worth it.”

The otherworldly demon froze for a moment, clearly considering her choices, but as she looked into Wei Yi’s eyes, her own seemed to gleam. A smile appeared upon her face again, and she nodded with vigour.

“Sure!”