V4C68: Taking Down the Assassins

“It is Wei Yi now, but yes. Fen Zhi, have you reached the fifth realm already?”

“I… I have! How about-”

“Not now. I shouldn’t have started it while you’re fighting that man,” the Ascendant stopped her, as she didn’t want the other side to have any idea of her combat ability if they weren’t already familiar with her exploits to some extent. For the moment, they were being allowed to speak freely, but if it was decided that they were worthwhile targets to attack, then something unexpected could occur before Wei Yi had the chance to stop it, “Is he the master of the Endless Dark Assassins?”

“You know of me?” a voice came from the absolute darkness that was the man at the back of the larger group of assassins, with his voice sounding like it was merely the wind passing by their ears, “Do I have you to thank for interfering with my actions?”

“That depends on what interference you mean. I have not done much to you, nor your Endless Dark, but you can be sure that this will change this very moment.”

“Do you think that you can defeat my assassins?”

“I don’t need to do that. I only need to defeat you. Fen Zhi, could you and your allies take a few steps back?”

The assassin’s voice suddenly returned to its previous aggressive state, “Wait, we are-”

“Not relevant. I am guessing that you don’t want the rest of your fellow victims of that bastard to suffer, so I can end this quickly, then you can resolve their control with whatever methods you may have, or I could assist you there as well,” she said, looking to the master of the Endless Dark, “As for you, I would advise you to surrender.”

“No. You may be in the fifth realm, but that is not enough.”

“You’re at the fifth realm already? I knew you could do it!”

“Thank you, Fen Zhi, but not now. Master of the Endless Dark, your cultivation is not one that can endure what I am about to do. As such, I will be kind – far too kind to someone running an assassin organisation that functions by forcefully replacing and controlling their spiritual will with their own, thus erasing their identities and forcing them to obey all of your commands – and give you a chance. Go on, refuse. I would be very pleased to see it.”

The reason that she said those words was due to the insight that she was able to gain into the man’s cultivation after a moment of observation. He had an impressive quantity of searing marks, a stable anchor, a sufficient core, but his planar energy was pitifully low in quantity, and his body was weak as well. If someone with the typical strength of an ordinary body cultivator, one without physique energy, came over and tapped his shoulder, he would likely crumple over. As such, she naturally wanted to confirm whether she could extend her power over Law to affect him, and thus she was making sure to make herself sound as powerful as possible.

That way, anyone with a mind would be able to empower her Command of Law, as they would automatically assume her to be more powerful if she seemed to not care about a foe in the sixth realm.

“Assassins, take her down!” the man instructed, not caring for her threats.

She shrugged, put her hands behind her back, and then looked at him with her mental energy concentrated within her eyes, causing them to glow with crimson and silver as she spoke, “Fall.”

Her words suddenly shook the world, and the figure of the Master of the Endless Dark suddenly collapsed onto the ground, letting out a gasp that was not affected by whatever communication technique he had previously made use of. His face smashed down onto the terrain, and while it did not seem to be greatly damaged, his leg clearly shattered due to the sudden collapse.

Despite that, the Endless Dark assassins weren’t affected, nor was there much reason for them to be, so in order to make freeing them as simple as possible, Wei Yi set up a few invisible barriers ahead of her and opened her mouth again.

“Cease.”

The world itself flashed grey, the entire area around the Master of the Endless Dark withering. Leaves dried and crumbled to dust, trees broke apart, the ground itself turned to sand as the life drained from it, and the Master of the Endless Dark breathed his last breath. At the same time, Wei Yi was forced to suppress a large amount of blood from rising up her throat.

“Pause,” she instructed again, this time targeting the assassins chasing towards her.

All of them froze right where they were, with some even stopping right in the air, their hearts, blood, and everything else ceasing to move.

Meanwhile, the assassins on the other side, standing beside Fen Zhi, quickly hastened towards those that were frozen in mid-air and grabbed them, their spiritual will coursing into the Endless Dark assassins, but they quickly found that their energy failed to properly interact with it, as if they didn’t exist. Of course, with the limitations of Law – and the rapidly increasing quantity of blood attempting to escape Wei Yi’s body – there was only so long that she could maintain the restriction, and so, the moment that they were ready, she dispelled the effect of the Command of Law.

The bodies of the assassins fell into the hands of their peers, who quickly took them away and continued with their methods. Although the Ascendant would have liked to observe and pay attention to it, she had to move part of her attention to the first assassin that she had gotten to know in her life, Yi Bai not included due to her accidentally obtaining the technique that she and Yi Fenwu had made use of.

“Yi Wei- no, Wei Yi, you’re amazing!”

“Thank you, I suppose… If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly happened to that speech of yours? Have you had this much practise speaking, or have you managed to correct your body at the same time as your spiritual will?”

“That is the result of the Third Eye, as well as the work I’d been doing. After I’ve refined most of my spiritual will, I had felt a lot… braver. That’s one word for it.”

“It indeed is. I barely recognised you.”

“Hehe… It suddenly became very fun to shout out curses and to swear at every little thing possible. I figured that since I haven’t been talking much before, I should start out with what felt comfortable. A little time passed, and so I ended up telling people to fuck off, or that some people are cunts, or something like that… After a while, I found that the people I was able to assist ended up being rather encouraged by this, so I couldn’t really stop…” Fen Zhi said, being rather embarrassed when compared to someone who stood tall and proud like some kind of scholar, “How about you? How did things go with your family?”

“Not too well, as you might be able to guess by my name. Don’t worry about it, I’ve resolved most of the significant problems and am not even living in the Yi District anymore,” she replied, “By the way, I see you’ve figured out a method to partially replicate the refining effect of the Third Eye in others, thus empowering their spiritual will and allowing it to overwhelm that of the late Master of the Endless Dark. Well done.”

“That was mostly my fellow assassins, but… thank you. I hope my techniques proved useful.”

“They were, incredibly so. By the way, if we keep at this, we’ll just be thanking one another over and over again, so I would recommend that we get somewhere else if we intend to do this. I’m not sure if there’s anyone that cares about the Master of the Endless Dark, but I’d imagine that anyone intending to take advantage of their actions won’t be too happy to see the Endless Dark being defeated by someone that had already caused a great deal of trouble to the Ping District,” Wei Yi said, glancing around with both spiritual perception and her sight.

However, that action seemed to cause Fen Zhi to point at herself in confusion, after she had joined in the observation of their surroundings.

“I’m not that famous yet, I’ve only been causing trouble with the Endless Dark…”

“No, I am sure that you have done what you could where you could, but I meant myself. A short time ago, I had dealt with a large number of criminal organisations that decided to attack me, then fought with one of the guardians of the district, Ping Waqing. I didn’t manage to beat him, but I still injured him despite only being at the third realm at the time.”

“… That’s fucking great! Congratulations! I’d love to learn something from you this time, but I do think that you are right. Were you going to the Ping District, or should we go to one of our hideouts elsewhere?” Fen Zhi asked, pointing first towards the district, then towards the north, “We’ve got a place in the district that’s safe for us, but in order to have a place to fall back to, we also set up a hideout near a small lake over there. It’s safer, so that’s where we were intending to go, but we could always head into the district if necessary.”

Wei Yi shrugged, “I am not going to disturb you more than necessary, even if you appear to have everything under control already. Let’s go to the lake.”

The former assassin of the Endless Dark nodded and glanced to her fellow assassins, most of whom were forced to carry one of their previous peers on their back and in their arms in order for them to be able to carry everyone without needing to drag them on the ground. For whatever reason, none of them said a single thing, but they did nod to Fen Zhi once they were prepared to leave.

At that point, Wei Yi and Fen Zhi departed, with the latter providing a small degree of guidance to the former in terms of the location of the hideout that they were making use of. With just a brief set of descriptions, the Ascendant was able to figure it out, recalling a region that she had run past when she was escaping from Ping Waqing. During her escape, she had leaned to the eastern side of the Ping District, and she had observed an area with a small cave that did not seem to be occupied back then.

There was the possibility that they had been present in the cave before this, making use of some odd phenomenon that allowed them to avoid the spiritual perception of someone in the third realm, but that was unlikely simply due to the highest realm amongst the previous Endless Dark assassins being the fourth realm at that time. There are few methods that can avoid spiritual perception and also affect those that are more powerful than the user, hence why it is often assumed that anyone who cannot be properly observed through spiritual perception has to have some immense capabilities. This was, generally, true, although it was only absolutely accurate when it came to the otherworldly gifts, which always vastly surpassed the power of any realm of planar cultivation.

That was one reason that some with some awareness of themselves preferred to avoid risking combat with Wei Yi when they didn’t know the realm that she was in, and then charged at her with more intensity when her true realm was shown without the appropriate display of raw power. Surely, if she somehow stopped them from observing her body and realm, she must have something of value on her body that they could then obtain. Certain elixirs and physiques can achieve this, but the more time she spent around the common cultivator, the more it seemed that she was one of the few to consider this.

“So, could you explain the exact method that you use to purify their spiritual will?”

“It isn’t too difficult, actually. Do you recall how I had two strands of spiritual will? It was that which had allowed me to free myself, as I was able to act with some independence from the Master of the Endless Dark, whose name I shall not mention so that the fucker won’t even have the satisfaction of being remembered, and so I tried to provoke that in the others in such a way that the darker energy wouldn’t grow as strong as it had in my case…” Fen Zhi was forced to pause to take a breath.

She had attempted to say all of this in one go, but just as anyone else that had attempted to explain something without proper preparation might know, it is difficult to know just how long one might need to fully put forward their ideas. This was especially so after lacking the opportunity to speak about them to someone who was more than a convenient ally.

Nevertheless, even if she was to stop talking right there and not continue, Wei Yi had a rough idea of what Fen Zhi had ended up accomplishing. With all of the time that she had made use of the Third Eye within her head, she had understood a significant degree of its structure, and had incorporated parts into her cultivation methods in order to best refine her energy. Although the former assassin of the Endless Dark had far fewer years to contemplate this, discovering one of the simplest factors about the Third Eye shouldn’t be too difficult.

The third eye was indeed a manifestation of an array, and it could be used to drive energy into refinement, or into a process of separation, wherein the impurities are simply removed. With the right application of one’s own spiritual will, which could be externalised without requiring the second realm and above, it was possible to project a replica of the Third Eye array into another person, and to stabilise it via their own energy to allow them to make use of it.

Although the exact method of this was a little more complex than it may sound, or perhaps it was even the other way around for those that preferred not to use arrays in their daily lives, but it was possible to attain, then replicate over and over again to separate the spiritual will of a cultivator into two distinct strands. Such a thing wouldn’t allow for two individual lines of thought, as nice as such a thing would be, and would still require further action to refine one’s own will to overpower that of another. Fortunately, with the death of the Master of the Endless Dark, the assassin bindings of the faction were no longer of any use, especially if there were no tokens for it as the Weavers of the Dark.

“Sorry, ran out of breath… I don’t mean to insult the others, but they don’t talk much.”

One of the former assassins of the Endless Dark that was carrying only one person with them turned to her and shrugged, turning right back the moment after.

“No, they don’t seem to be. Have you made sure that their lungs, throat, vocal cords and so on are in good condition? With a cursory glance alone, I am able to notice several for whom breathing is difficult, and many more in the group that had not yet been freed from the assassin organisation’s leader. You have checked that, right?”

Fen Zhi nearly stumbled on the spot, instantly turning around and examining one of her followers.

“Wait, were you lot injured?” she gasped, tearing away the black fabric that covered the man’s neck to reveal a large scar that covered half of it, standing out on his otherwise smooth dark skin, “Shit, I hadn’t thought about this at all! I got too caught up in all of the fighting…”

“Since they won’t be able to say much to you, let me say this instead. I am able to heal such damage to a person’s body, but I would appreciate it if you could at the very least make the decision to reside in my territory after you decide to vacate this hideout. We have a nice fortress by the name of Paragon where you can reside without being concerned about any assassin organisations or the like, and even have the constant support of several physique abilities acting upon you at once to reinforce your bodies, and energy,” Wei Yi spoke quickly, skipping over any unnecessary advertisement to get to the point.

She didn’t want to force these assassins to continue performing the tasks that had been forced onto them by the Master of the Endless Dark, but she did want to have some people on her side that were capable of quick and decisive action.

With the large number of people living in Paragon that weren’t originally more than the residents of a violent but not too excessive city like Beast’s Rest, while she could count on them to be decent in a fight with killing intent and their current physiques, they would be unable to notice quite a few things that an assassin might pay attention to, and then act accordingly. In essence, she wanted to have an additional layer of security in Beast’s Rest, and considering the way in which Fen Zhi was acting after everything she had been through, it did not appear that every assassin of the Endless Dark absolutely despised combat as a whole.

Those that did could still live in the fortress and constitute a larger fighting force in the eyes of the world, so she wouldn’t be losing out even if most of them swore never to fight again.

She did also want to provide safety to the former assassins regardless of their decisions after arriving at Paragon, but having a multitude of reasons for her actions would hardly be detrimental to her position, and would help convince any of the assassins that were particularly reluctant to go with a stranger that appeared to be able to control the world with a single word.

Indeed, it seemed like many found her rather suspicious, with most turning to Fen Zhi for an answer.

“Will you be able to do something here, or should we hurry to the hideout? Is this something that needs to be handled right away?”

“Ideally, we’d have dealt with the injuries the moment that they occurred, but I suspect that they happened while you were away, so that wouldn’t have been possible. Now, I will need to repair the skin, modify the inside of the body, and that will require all of you to focus as well, so unless you are able to perfectly gather your thoughts and recall the exact structure of the human neck in a perfectly functioning state, then assist me, I would advise going to the hideout,” she spoke quickly, not because they were in any actual rush – the most recent scar appeared to be several weeks old, and wouldn’t get any worse from a few minutes of waiting – but due to the rapidly rising agitation within Fen Zhi’s expression.

It reminded her of her own behaviour when the assassin had taken an elixir to turn her bones to gold but was harmed greatly in the process due to the relative weakness of her body. Somehow, they had changed their mental states greatly since the last time they had seen one another, although it wasn’t that much of a surprise considering quite how long it had been since then. A year for the assassin, and it has been more than twenty for Wei Yi.

“We should go to the hideout. Come on!”

Some hours later, the former assassin and the Ascendant left the main chamber of the hideout together, with only the former being exhausted. It turned out that most of the injuries on the assassins were dealt cleanly enough, and were healed in such a manner that it was possible to undo them with only a cursory understanding of the internal structure of the human body.

When the power of Law, someone in the fifth realm that could compete with the seventh, and a whole bunch of assassins that were very keen to get their voice back all got together, it was simple enough to undo their wounds. They weren’t yet able to speak, as they had as little experience with it as Fen Zhi had, not to mention the fact that their rebuilt neck needed some time to fully set, but they were in good enough condition to take care of their rescued peers while their leader and her friend sat down in an adjacent chamber, shutting the door behind themselves.

The moment that Fen Zhi dropped down onto a shabby stool that stood at the edge of the room, it was as if the excited light faded from her.

“Finally… it is done…”

“I see your speech pattern didn’t change that much after all. I figured, considering the constant strain on your throat that I noticed… So, is the reason for this what I think it is, or is there something else going on?”

“Depends on what you are thinking… With how dire things were… with how few I’ve been able to rescue before then… Someone needed to stand tall and bold… Since I was getting some new inclinations as a result of the merging wills… I used them as an excuse…” the former assassin admitted, sighing, “I would have liked to be stronger… but it is difficult.”

“You don’t need to tell me that. Have you heard of the Ascendant’s Arbiters, perchance?”

“… No.”

“Shame, I would have thought I would have become a little more famous in a place like this, considering how much damage I had done. In the district, I still see a number of homes and walls that have clearly been cut in half, horizontally.”

“… That was you? It… is rather strange… The accounts were rather… divided… is one way to put it. I heard far too many different theories… I suppose that everyone else decided that… to mention you… they would empower you, in a way…” Fen Zhi said, looking at her for a while, “With that knowledge… and the Arbiters you mentioned… If they’re significant enough for the district to pay attention to you… it might be that you are indeed far more fearsome with that knowledge.”

“Indeed, that might be one reason behind their actions. Frankly, I think that they should have just dealt with the assassin organisations and the countless criminal syndicates that have festered in the Ping District long ago, but perhaps there’s less of a difference between them and the Ping family than they like to admit.”

Long ago, the Ping family and the assassins that they had trained and used for their own goals had supposedly broken apart, resulting in a number of assassin organisations being exiled from the district while the Ping family did its best to look as innocent as possible. However, with the current state of the Ping District and the power that some of the assassins managed to amass, it was far more likely that the assassins were simply sent off to places where they could develop more easily than in the district, while the Ping family continued to support them and to foster any and all kinds of criminals that they could control. If the district was ever to be in serious danger, a number of organisations might run in to aid them despite seemingly having cut all ties with the district.

If the other districts were to have had enough power and reason to go against the Ping District, like resources or something else of the sort that was, in reality, absent from the district, then it would have likely been captured and either claimed by one of the other districts, or given over to new leadership.

“Hm. Fen Zhi, I know that this might not be the best time, and rather sudden, but would you, or any of the Endless Dark assassins, be interested in helping me capture the Ping District?”

“… That is sudden… but I don’t necessarily dislike the idea. Do you… actually have a large enough force to be able to handle… the Ping District?” Fen Zhi questioned, glancing in the direction of the district only to be met with the stone of the cave that they sat in, “If it was possible… to clear the district… then I think that many of us… might be keen to help… although I wouldn’t force it on any one of them… they, no… we all deserve a rest, I think.”

“I won’t deny that. I do have a large enough force, in the form of two Patriarchs and a Matriarch at the seventh realm, three districts, one fortress full of people with impeccable physiques and techniques, as well as a bunch of people that are absolutely insane by one metric or another. I fought those in the sixth realm when I was in the third, one has lived for more than a million years, another is trying to cultivate two types of energy at once by creating an alternating pulse within her meridians, and that’s hardly the most unusual thing someone’s done amongst us. We can beat the Ping District, that much I am sure of,” Wei Yi said, “With the help of a few others, it might even be trivial.”

The former assassin stared at a random point in space for a little while, occasionally stroking her chin, before she raised her head and looked into Wei Yi’s eyes.

“Again… I won’t say anything for the others… but I think that I am in. I want the Ping District… to be a place where I can live… properly, without the constant threat of the thieves… bandits, assassins… the rest… I would like to do something to improve the district… even after everything that I’ve done already…”

“In that case, the Ascendant’s Arbiters – the Ascendant being me – welcome you into our ranks. If you want, I can give you a whole list of various benefits, but I’ll start out with a simple technique to help you along,” the Ascendant smiled, manifesting a thin piece of bark upon which her Ascendant’s Disciple technique was carved, “In honour of our last exchange of knowledge, here you go. As for the people outside… You can come out. I can notice you even with your stealth methods.”

Almost immediately, the door opened and a number of assassins practically spilled into the room, their dark energy hovering around their necks.

“We… would… also… like… to… join.”

“I had told you not to speak because your neck hasn’t fully stabilised yet, so don’t try it. You can still write, and even if you just showed up and did nothing, I would vaguely understand the situation. Any one of you that feels the need to rush into combat to repay some debt, I’d advise you not to do so, but as for the rest of you, I can provide you with a good opportunity to deal with a few bad elements of the Ping District.”