V4C69: Encirclement, Part 1

The night came, and the day came after, and the Ping District was mostly unaware of the events that occurred so near to them. All that they were able to learn was that one of their assassin organisations, the Endless Dark, suddenly lost its leader, while the assassins seemed to vanish from the district.

To most that were aware of the Endless Dark being present near the Ping District, this wasn’t that unusual. Assassin organisations came and went from the district, especially if they encountered a foe that required the efforts of more than one assassin, so for them to leave for a while wasn’t odd. If they didn’t return after a month, then they would have cause for suspicion and concern, mostly about the ways to recover the techniques of a fallen assassin organisation and prevent them from being targeted next.

In the world of criminals and assassins, those who would care for their fellows were few for the simple reason that it was a very inefficient thing to do. Even with the typical preference to avoid interfering with the actions of other criminals unless it was advantageous for them, it was rare for two groups not to come into conflict with one another for any number of reasons.

At that point, if one happened to be fond of the people on the other side, all it would mean is that the other group would have a much easier time obtaining whatever they desire out of that conflict. This was especially true when going against groups that owned brothels or other forms of such entertainment, as any of the prostitutes that one slept with could have easily been loyal to that group and thus willingly put themselves in such a place where the one that saw themselves as their lover would be forced to pick between their false relationship and their own allegiances. For whatever reason, there have been a number of known cases where the former was chosen, and it was one of the many reasons that Wei Yi avoided relationships. She didn’t suspect those near her, but being put into a similar situation wouldn’t be pleasant regardless of the reason behind it.

Still, this wasn’t a matter of the Ascendant, at least not yet, so far as the Ping District were aware. As such, they did nothing.

Unbeknownst to them, a number of forces approached them from all sides. To the south and south west, countless soldiers equipped with talismans took their positions some distance from the walls of the district, hiding themselves from casual observations as they waited. To the north, towering figures with countless layers of immense muscle beneath their skin stood tall and proud, idly pretending that they were occupying themselves with hunting and feasting – an action not unlike the Chao family’s people. To the east, it was as if a sea of umbrellas and various covering advanced towards the Ping District, although all of them blended into the sands and desolate dirt of the northern regions.

The only faction that had to not be seen, and that did not originate from the direction that they approached, were the people that gathered near the west. Their numbers were smallest, and their forces were the least cohesive in appearance or cultivation, but if someone was to understand their true abilities, there would be many reasons to deem them to be the greatest threat to the surrounded district.

And yet, the people of the Ping District barely had a clue. Most of the scouts that would patrol the outskirts of the district only reported in every so often, so no-one noticed that one or two of them were a little quiet.

When the sun was directly above them, they finally understood that something was amiss.

Even then, it was not due to some failure on the part of the forces that surrounded the Ping District, but instead specifically due to their plans, as a large cosmic flare suddenly rose into the sky from the district itself. It came from the central region of the district, and immediately caught the attention of those that stood near them as it appeared to emerge from the air, without a single person being present to manifest such a flare.

Some wanted to dismiss it as a mere coincidence, but that was when the phantom of an enormous anchor suddenly manifested from that flare, spreading out until the base was wide enough to cover the entire range of spiritual perception for someone in the seventh realm.

All of the guardians hastened to the centre of the district, their energy readied to either destroy the manifestation of the strange five-sided anchor, or to claim it for their family if it turned out to be some kind of legendary treasure, and were thus in a similar position to the other residents of the Ping District when the sound of war horns pervaded the district.

It came from all sides, deep and droning, and yet each side was also different. To the north, the sound was simple, yet powerful, clearly produced with powerful lungs. Over at the east, the horns sounded more subtle and quiet, and yet they pervaded the streets with far more intensity than the powerful northern horns. Then, at the south, anyone that had ever been to the Luo District wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the sound was produced not by an actual horn, but by several sound talismans being activated at once, their resonating sound being quieter than what the Chao could produce, but significantly more violent, with several windows and glass objects shattering from the mere sound of it.

Yet again, the west displayed the greatest deviation. Rather than a mass of horns, there was only one, but it was the loudest and most intense. In addition, the sound seemed to bring out the memories of the past in those that heard it, as if the very sound was imbued with the history of countless ages past.

None of those affected could have known this, and so the only thing that they were able to see were vague shadows of things that no longer were around the residences and structures. Some of the buildings almost lined up, but others were entirely separate from the current layout of the district. The shapes were also vastly different, with most buildings being made entirely of wood, their rooves angled and their windows large, some vague figures on the inside that seemed to be observing the people of the modern day.

Their gazes weren’t locking onto any particular person or object, and yet it felt as if they were staring at everyone at once, even when they were looking away from anyone or anything.

With this and the illusory anchor that towered over the district, the leader of the Ping District’s guardians, Ping Waqing, had little choice but to make a few decisions quickly, before the forces on the outside as well as the strange manifestations of the past and the unknown within the district had the chance to act out whatever plan or intention they had.

“One of you should go to each side of the district. I will stay behind, as I am best equipped to handle the centre and least suited to handle the outside,” he commanded, the other four guardians quickly deciding amongst themselves who would go where. Some of them had places that they favoured, others didn’t really care where they would end up, and soon they dispersed towards the edges of the district, with him remaining at the foot of the illusory anchor.

He couldn’t recall where he had last seen it, but the anchor was strangely familiar to him, even while the energy that it was made from appeared to be entirely unbound and lacking in realm, meaning that it was essentially only the natural energy of the world formed into a strange shape.

“What is this…”

“Want to know?” a voice from behind him instantly reminded him of exactly where he had previously seen the anchor, and heard the voice, and his whole body tensed as he reached out with his spiritual perception and sought out the source of both.

To the north, Ping Zheng leapt onto the wall of the district and looked out, finding a legion of equally muscular and tall figures staring back at him. Just as he was a powerful warrior, wearing nothing above the waist and choosing to expose his liberally oiled muscles, almost everyone that he saw was in a very similar state. The energy of the legion looking back at him was radiating from them and uniting together into an enormous muscular figure akin to the biggest of the troops, with their eyes focused entirely upon the guardian.

At the front was one of the few exceptions, a powerful yet clothed man that boldly displayed the energy of the seventh realm.

“Are you intending to attack us, Chao family? Do you understand what you are doing?” the guardian questioned, his voice being projected out by nothing but the sheer might of his internal muscles and organs, “Are you attempting to break up the alliance of Yi City that has stood for a million years? Are you?”

“We will not destroy Yi City. We are keeping Yi City intact, and it is the Ping District that most endangers the combined forces of the districts!” the Chao Patriarch replied, rising into the air as a great mass of energy gathered beneath his feet, bringing the rest of his forced up with him, “The northern districts are united, and we will stand against the likes of you, the district that has been a blight on the rest of Yi City for so long! The criminals and assassins were meant to have left your district!”

“Remove the thugs!” the crowd behind him, the numerous warriors equipped with everything from bows to enormous war hammers thrusting their weapons into the air with excitement obvious in their stances, “Heal the Ping District!”

‘Madmen, all of them. They’ve not actually been riled up to this extent by that Ascendant alone, were they?’ Ping Zheng wondered to himself, glancing back at the enormous anchor manifestation with worry rising in his heart, “Since you wish to strike at us, then we will fight back! Guardians, let us take them-”

He was forced to stop as blasts of energy suddenly shot up from the west, east and south, and his fellow guardians refused, or were unable to, listen to his request.

Although he would refuse to admit it, this did cause him to tense up. As if it wouldn’t have been obvious enough without the energy radiating from the man that was quickly rising to his height, he was facing a Patriarch with the loyal forces of his district behind him, while all that he had on his side was himself and a few of his direct subordinates, who he had asked to hurry to his position as quickly as possible. Even in the best case scenario, that would equate to a dozen Linked Channels realm experts against one in the Oblivion Halo realm and a swarm of those in the sixth, fifth and fourth realms, with their sheer numbers allowing them to stand up against the twelve or thirteen that Ping Zheng would be able to muster.

‘That’s without mentioning their allegiances… Some of them may just attempt to flee, so long as the other parts of the district are under less pressure…’ he frowned, bringing out a great length of bronze chain that he wrapped around his arm, glaring at the Chao District’s forces.

If he needed to fight, he would do so at his full strength.

Ping Liu Yang barely made it onto the walls before she was accosted by a sudden storm of humanoid planar constructs, all of which were constructed by large squads of Bai soldiers that stood a fair distance from the walls of the Ping District, preventing anyone from easily retaliating while their planar constructs were still manifested.

While their numbers may not have been as impressive as if they had rushed in personally, the safety of using a planar construct to wage war meant that they didn’t need to have a single care for the bodies they were making use of. Where a normal soldier might attempt to find a weakness in the walls or in the defences of their enemies, the Bai District’s troops were able to simply rush at them and strike at the walls with all of their might, all while some of their constructs jumped atop them and rushed at the fair maiden that attempted to stop their approach.

The guardian, Ping Liu Yang, quickly realised that even though she couldn’t sense any forces in the seventh realm, she was faced with more than seven planar constructs whose power was in the sixth realm. In order for her to have any chance at survival, she naturally had to unleash everything she had all at once, from the very beginning, and hope that the other guardians would be able to assist her the moment that they resolved the threat on their side.

“Invaders! I shall be your foe!” she exclaimed, unfurling a red ribbon that looked rather ordinary, without any ornamentation or even much of a planar current flowing through it.

Her weapon of choice also looked to be only two metres long at best, so when she grasped one end and swung at the planar constructs that were rushing towards her, some might think her to be mad to do so while they were still more than twice that distance away.

Those people would, in turn, be quickly reminded that anything that a guardian of a district and a figure in the sixth realm uses as their weapon of choice would be unlikely to be entirely ordinary. While it was true that the most powerful could make use of the air itself as a sword far superior to any that could be forged within the Planar Continents, only a master that surpassed the very notion of a physical weapon would ever be at a disadvantage with a powerful blade in hand, as well as a layer of armour to protect themselves.

The ribbon flew through the air as an ordinary ribbon might, at first, but a few moments prior to it entirely missing her foes, it suddenly stretched out and seemed to grow rigid, as if it turned from cloth to a sharpened blade. With a flash of crimson, the ribbon shot through the approaching planar constructs, instantly severing them in half as the ribbon returned to a more ordinary length.

It did retain its new state, as it remained hard and rigid, resembling a bloodied sword.

With it, Ping Liu Yang slashed at the reforming planar constructs, meeting their strikes with the side of the hardened ribbon while piercing through them with ease.

The guardian to rush to the south was Ping Yin Wu, a figure taller and more imposing than most of the Chao District’s men. She wielded an enormous axe in one hand, which she readied the moment that she saw what the south was being attacked by.

Countless figures of all realms between the second and sixth stood some distance from the walls, having travelled between the nearest points of the Luo and Ping Districts while carrying enormous bags on their backs. Whether they were in the second or sixth realm, those bags were not heavy in the ordinary sense, but the power that they contained made them equally challenging and important to carry regardless of their physical prowess and identity. It was from these bags that they removed the first talismans that they had prepared, then threw them at the walls.

As soon as they left their hands, the talismans transformed into a litany of energies and colours that besieged the walls, crashing into them, exploding by them, freezing them, cutting into their weaker points, and even seeming to only lightly brush past them. Weapons, natural phenomena and abstracts given form were all used, and while their intrinsic discrepancies gave them no benefit of natural resonance, the moment that they crossed an invisible threshold before the district, their power seemed to vastly amplify. Most were unable to see the source of this sudden development, but some keen eyes did notice a thin thread stretching out from the flying talismans to the distant mirage of an anchor, one that grabbed the attention of all when it first appeared.

“You cowards! Come and fight me if you dare!” Ping Yin Wu shouted out, being forced to leap away from the barrage if she didn’t want to waste her energy simply on resisting the onslaught of talismans.

However, the attackers paid her no heed and continued on, advancing by a step as they threw out even more yellowed papers with all kinds of symbols written upon them, with the uses of some completely eluding even those that that hauled them all the way to the assault on the Ping District. All that they could be sure of was that they had offensive use, so they threw them all the same.

After one series of talismans, the walls were still holding up, having been prepared for attacks far worse than this one, but as the second set fell upon them, the stones were shaken greatly. Amongst the used talismans, there were those that eroded stone, that dispersed powerful connections between objects, those that disrupted planar energy and even those specifically intended to breach such defences, cutting a thin hole into the stone and the defensive measures within to quickly damage their operation.

It was clear that, with enough time, the walls would fall, so Ping Yin Wu was forced to advance despite her own preferences.

She waited for the Luo District’s forces to reach into their bags for another volley of talismans, then leapt from the walls, her mere jump causing a sound wave to burst out from her position and knock into the Luo cultivators. For those in the second realm, it may have been difficult to deal with such a thing, but the moment prior to a collision, a hidden talisman beneath their robes ignited, pushing back against the wave with an equal strength, causing both to disperse.

Those talismans did nothing against the beast of a woman herself, who landed at the front lines and swung the great axe with all of her might, not caring for the person she was slashing at or what their reasons for being present were. In her eyes, every single one of them was a foe deserving death.

When Ping Mu jumped onto the western wall, he had already prepared his fists and had stretched out his legs in preparation for inevitable conflict. Although some saw him as dim in comparison to the wiser minds of the Ping District, he had a sufficient understanding of battle to know that when their foe announced their intentions with such vigour, they would be coming prepared and with a great deal of might, if at all. In this case, when he saw who stood on the other side of the wall, he almost doubted whether he was right.

Rather than an army or a Patriarch, both of which were fearsome enough in their own right, what he saw was a small squad of people, all of whom looked to belong to different families and to make use of very different methods in combat.

The hair of one shifted as if each strand was a tendril of a greater organism, the body of another looked to be demonic in nature, while a third, the one standing at the front of the group, seemed to act in a very strange manner. Each of her movements was very rhythmic, as if she was following some unseen and unheard beat, her every breath being synchronised with it.

Strangest of all, at least in Ping Mu’s mind, was that she was only in the fourth realm, albeit at its peak.

‘Is this some kind of distraction? Are the real forces attacking the north, east and south while they are used as bait to draw away as much attention as possible?’ he tried to understand the plans of his enemies while the woman with red hair and eyes, the one practically pulsing to an unheard rhythm, drew closer, ‘No, that could be their intention as well. The others will or will not be able to hold on for a few minutes no matter what I do, so I should take these women out first and rush to Ping Liu Yang when I’m done… Right the battle! Don’t blame me, strange woman, but I simply can’t let you approach any closer!’

Ping Mu leapt down from the wall decisively, his fist aimed directly at the woman’s face. The quicker that he damaged her appearance, the sooner he would be able to ignore the appeal of her beauty, allowing him to dedicate all of his focus on the fight.

Naturally, being a master of the sixth realm, he used artefact gauntlets and boots, and further supplemented his physical might with the absolute power of a planar construct, which also formed into a great first that would smash down alongside his own, landing their attacks at the same time and hopefully taking the woman out before she had a chance to try anything.

It should have been easy. The fourth realm was nothing against the sixth, in the vast majority of cases.

And yet, still in time with the unseen and unheard pulse, the pale woman woman suddenly threw a punch at him, one that did not seem to harness any complex principles nor made use of any extreme techniques. A blood-like surge of light exploded from her fist, soaring towards him, the centre seeming to head towards his fist as if it wished to compare itself to him. In the eyes of the guardian, this was amusing enough to risk having his clothes muddied by some trick of his opponent.

The crimson struck him with little force, but he instantly felt his planar construct becoming weaker as the crimson enveloped it, wrapping in a thin film around the construct fist before seeming to vanish from sight. In addition, some kind of immense pressure came from inside the Ping District, causing his body and energy to weaken at the same time, practically dragging his effective realm down to the peak of the fifth in just a few moments. Even then, that should have been enough for his punch to have sufficient strength behind it to knock the woman out, but the weak pulse of crimson was unexpectedly followed by an immense flood of silver and golden light.

It was at the peak of power that one should be able to achieve in the fourth realm, but it also had a strange imbued strength that raised it higher, something that was then made even more significant when the same property of the illusory anchor towering above the Ping District that had weakened Ping Mu affected the woman as well. The guardian was about to rejoice before he had the sudden realisation that this did not weaken the power of the pale woman, but instead raised it just far enough for it to be equivalent to the first stage of the fifth realm.

In other words, through that empowerment and his own weakened state, he was facing an opponent of equal realm.

The blast of metallic light struck him and greatly dulled his speed, causing him to land on the ground a few steps away from the woman he was initially targeting. Before he could take even a single breath, the woman was already attacking again, and he suddenly realised that this movement was also in accordance with the unheard beat, with the first pulse of crimson and the burst of silver and gold that followed almost immediately acting akin to the twinned beats of a heart.

At that point, he finally probed the woman with his spiritual perception, finding that he simply couldn’t beat her to the ground with naught but his raw strength. If there was something within her that he couldn’t see but that could allow him to best her, he would be a fool not to take the opportunity to find it.

‘What the… her meridians are pulsing with her heartbeat, and through them…’ Ping Mu gasped.

No matter how he looked at it, this was absolutely ludicrous, and yet he saw two distinct strands of energy that constantly travelled through the woman’s meridians, never coming into direct contact with one another and taking different paths whenever possible. Each time that her heart beat, her energy coursed through her meridians, her body also moved in accordance with the energy, resulting in the strange rhythm that he had observed when she had been approaching him. When she struck out, the crimson thread of energy within her shot out first, releasing a small clump that was quickly recovered within the body, and the planar energy followed next.

This alone caused a minor magnification effect that was further empowered by some property of the crimson energy, allowing her attacks to be of sufficient danger to Ping Wu, and it seemed that her heartbeat was slowly accelerating.

In other words, her movement sped up too, and where the first few strikes were easy enough to observe, the ones that came after became progressively more and more difficult to handle. The closest thing that he could compare this to would be someone learning a combat technique on the spot, progressing from a beginner in the Initial Accomplishment stage all the way to Full Success in mere minutes – and she might not even stop there.

‘Just what has decided to attack our Ping District?’

“You! You attack us again?” Ping Waqing shouted, in part in sheer aggression as well as to catch the attention of any allies that might be standing near him, but he found that only Wei Yi’s attention was on him. The rest of his forces, as well as the people of the Ping District, were staring up into the sky, onto the enormous anchor manifestation.

“Of course. Did you think that nobody would be interested in taking down such a den of assholes and scumbags like the Ping District? The Chao District was for the idea, as was the Luo and Bai Districts. Even the assassins that you had used were keen to take you down, although it would be more fair to say that they were the ones with the most righteous reason. Your Ping family had forgotten what it had promised to do, and I, for one, believe that you should really pay for those crimes. However, I am not like the Greats in this regard,” Wei Yi stated, waving to the other people of the district, “I will not arbitrarily kill those who have nothing to do with the problem. It is only you, your guardians, and the Patriarch that has actively kept the district in its terrible state. Only you and the factions you have fostered need to die.”

Ping Waqing clenched his teeth and unleashed a series of fist planar constructs, instantly using his full strength as to guarantee that he would take her out as soon as possible, and even when he felt an energy emanating from her that weakened every part of him, he pressed on with the attack.

It had only been a month and a few days since he had last seen her, to the point that most of his injuries from the fight have yet to recover fully, so he was convinced that no matter what she did, he would still be able to defeat her so long as she wasn’t given the opportunity to repeat the kinds of techniques that she had made use of the last time that they had opposed one another. At best, she would have attained a few more stages in this time, which would still make him far superior to her.

For that reason, when she just raised her head to look at the flying fists and casually spoke, he was stunned into inaction.

“Disperse,” Wei Yi ordered, her voice causing the quiver of chains in the air as all of the flying fist constructs were suddenly caught by them, their stable structures shaking and cracking in mere breaths, their shape and power rapidly draining away.

The stable energy of the sixth realm, even if it was lowered to the strength of the peak of the fifth, should have been able to endure far more than a single word from a young woman, and yet they fell apart before they could even get near to her. Although the Ascendant did have to suppress a tremor that passed through her body, as well as evaporating the blood that was drawn within her, she was still in a far better shape than she should have been.

“What realm are you in?” Ping Waqing questioned the moment that he was able to move once more.

“Wouldn’t you like to know? Here, let me show you exactly how strong I am now,” she replied with a smile, quietly wiping a drop of blood that escaped from her mouth with the back of her hand, “You’d be able to identify my cultivation with a breakthrough, wouldn’t you?”

She thrust her left hand into the air, a vast amount of energy surging out as the anchor behind the guardian suddenly solidified, then crystallised, breaking apart until only the base and peak were whole. A vast sphere surrounded the entire district, warding off intrusion from the outside, and upon it eleven marks that blazed with crimson light shone through on either side.