V5C19: Preservers

One minute and four seconds later, slightly going above her estimate, she opened her eyes to reveal the clear, deep and gem-like eyes that she had possessed for many years now, the fog gone from them.

“There, I’m feeling better now. Good evening, Ru Patriarch, and apologies for that,” she said to him, inspecting him and his aura in more detail at the same time, “I doubt you come to speak to every new honorary member of the Preservers, so I’d love to know what it is that caught your eye. The performance at the ceremony, or perhaps the supposedly clear jade slip that doesn’t permanently contain information?”

“I had suspected that you might have understood the nature of the process,” the Patriarch said, “Otherwise, I would have to question why the Ascendant of the north had studied a finger technique to such an absurd extent.”

He was a tall man that even stood higher than her, clad in thick, dark plate armour which had a symbol of an open book on the middle of the chestplate. Large shoulder pads lay on either side of his stern face, covered in part by the shadow of a hood that covered the top of his head. It didn’t do enough to obstruct the long grey hair that grew beneath it, nor the similarly grey beard which grew longest at his chin and was braided up to his chest, just short enough to not obstruct the symbol of the open book. Even though the general style of the armour was rather traditional and plain, several large glowing blue symbols shone through the metal, and countless smaller characters almost flowed between them.

Just as with many of his Preservers, the Patriarch had a large hammer on his back, the head of which was covered in similar glowing runes that made it rather clear that their creator must have been the same, as it was difficult to match the style and exact strength of the inscriptions even if one followed the exact same technique with the same cultivation method.

On his belt, a thick length of leather, an incredibly thick book that could be used as a hammer all on its own was attached, and from it she could sense a great deal of resonance with the Knowledge series of techniques that she had picked up. Out of all of the Patriarchs that she had seen up to this point, this seemed to be the most committed to the practises of the district that they ruled over, and although his realm was not the highest of all the Patriarchs she had met, he still seemed to be one of the strongest.

“It is one I had considered a little more than most, but I know far more about other techniques, finger-related and not. However, I would rather avoid this topic for now, and focus on the slips, as well as your own purpose. What do you want with everything you gather, and from me?”

“There’s no need to explain what we do with the jade slips, is there? The Ru District is home to the largest repository of knowledge in the Planar Continents, and we will never miss the opportunity to add to it. Never,” he stated, his brows furrowing as he spoke before he relaxed a moment later, “You, on the other hand, Ascendant, can be a contributor in many ways.”

“Largest repository? You sure about that? I am building up quite a large library myself.”

“Is that so? Where are you building it, in the northern fortress that your Arbiters had settled down in?” he asked.

“In my head, a much better place, in my opinion. Everything is accessible everywhere, and I can freely share any part of it in an incredibly easy way,” she answered, tapping the side of her head, “You should try cultivating spiritual will if you haven’t done so already, as I can assure you that it would be of great use to everyone in the district, as well as beyond.”

“Ah, your mind… An untrustworthy place, one that is subject to far more decay than a jade slip. Even with the strongest mental cultivation methods I have seen, your mind will forget or alter significant details far more quickly than even a common piece of paper, or even parchment, not to mention the immediate loss of everything in that head of yours if you happen to perish or get lost somewhere, as is the unfortunate fate of many a clever scholar with a similar mindset to your own,” the Ru Patriarch shared, “A physical library would be a far better place for everything you know.”

“I’d disagree. That being said, we can always argue later. What do you want from me?”

“How about a trade? There are troubles in this district, and there are things that you also require, Ascendant. We can exchange significant favours, if you will.”

“First thing, then, do you know what I want? For all you know, you will be unable to do a single thing that I actually require, and yet I would have benefited you first and thus wasted my time and effort on something that I didn’t need to do,” she said, putting her hand on her waist while straightening her back and quietly continuing to process all of the information that she had not yet digested in full, “Provide an example, if you could.”

“The spatial stabilisation point should be of interest to you, as should the contents of the Bottomless Archive, not to mention certain secrets about the Great Families-”

His lips froze when a fist stopped just a moment from his face, clearly being restrained with some effort by the Ascendant. A crimson light shone at the centre of her eyes, shrouded and surrounded by a dark shadow that almost burned and rose akin to smoke.

After a few moments, she withdrew her fist and quietly ignored the cracks that formed in the walls.

“Ahem. You were just mentioning them, right? Sorry about that,” Wei Yi said, glancing at the wall that she had struck with the sheer force of her rushing fist and considered how she could correct it.

She did have the ability to repair things like that, but it was a little challenging to do so in an instant without making it a purely superficial repair that would crumble the moment that it was casually touched, or perhaps even looked at. Hence, she invoked Endless Calculation and quickly let it do its work while she took a step back and calmed her body.

“You do have the reported dislike of them, I see. We know a few things that they have wished for us to get rid of, but did not. We could provide it to you, provided that you assist the Ru District and family with a certain issue.”

“Hm, I suppose that I could assist with certain problems, although it would be best if our enemy was shared. There wouldn’t happen to be some members of the Preservers of Eternity beneath the Bottomless Archive, would there?” she asked, not particularly expecting a single positive response to such a random inquiry. The lack of immediate rebuttal was instantly observed by her, forcing her to look him directly in the eyes and raise an eyebrow.

“We did not call our scholars the Preservers for no reason.”

“Fuck right off. That is just too blatant and coincidental, isn’t it? Why would you name yourselves after that group?”

“The Preservers of Eternity claim to keep the world stored forever in their tomes, but they do not truly do so. They have their preferences for what they wished to see, and rather than omitting that which they did not like, they obliterate it. Somehow, the best place to restrain them became at the very centre of a trove of that exact knowledge.”

Seeing her stunned expression, the man grinned and quietly chuckled to himself, the metal on his shoulder pads tapping on his chestplate as his shoulders shook.

“Well, that is why the archives are that large, I suppose. Is their bottom seemingly out of sight only because it is where the Preservers of Eternity are sealed away? No, don’t answer, I can already tell what you’re going to say,” she calmed her expression, “Since you continued to talk to them, I can only assume that you wouldn’t object to getting rid of the picky fuckers… by the way, I usually limit my swearing, but the recent mention of the Greats seems to be hitting me worse than usual.”

“We have heard of some things from the north, so there is no need to explain. However, I find it difficult to believe that you will be able to assist too greatly in this regard. They are an ancient threat, with their leader being at the peak of the seventh realm at the time of their sealing. It is hard to say whether their cultivation would have changed or developed, as the intention was to have frozen them in time completely, but the time would have certainly caused their strength to rise notably. Your power will not be sufficient, Ascendant,” the Patriarch said, quickly calming and suppressing his laughter to not seem to be ridiculing her.

“You sure about that? I’ve fought several Patriarchs at this point, killing one of them in their own district at the centre of an incredibly powerful array that, well… something like this,” she raised her hand and released some of the spare killing intent that had been produced to manifest a replica of the array.

She had noted it down during the battle at the Ping District, and she had unintentionally put it to use in the further strengthening of her killing intent, although most was kept away due to the sheer danger of abusing the full features of the array. The Ping Foundation Array – named after the words of the Ping Patriarch when the array was activated – still had much to be drawn out of it, and now that her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow was born, she suspected she would get to that sooner than expected.

However, the Ru Patriarch was unaware of that fact and had his own perspective on her strength.

“You speak of the battle at the Ping District? The situation there is somewhat different from that of the district, and so your strength in one place will not necessarily carry over to another… Not to mention your current state. Unless every single report has failed mention this to us, you should have had another arm until recently.”

“I may not have been preparing for this kind of thing, but that doesn’t mean that I am completely useless without it. Most of my strength has already returned, and I have broken through a stage or two.”

“That is not enough… But you are right, I kept talking about them for a reason. We will need to fight them soon, as the statis field in the Bottomless Archive has been decaying recently. Soon enough, there will be a need to fight, and at that point we cannot ignore those who have the ability to help us. As such, this is the deal I propose to you, Ascendant,” the Ru Patriarch said, “You will be provided a place here, and a spatial stabilisation point. You may grow and learn, and the moment that the Preservers of Eternity are close to emerging, we shall fight them together.”

“You’re really not going to ask me for anything other than that? Frankly, I’d like to get rid of them myself.”

“Our Ru District can always ask for more, but I don’t think that this is necessary at the moment. If both of us perish, it would have been a complete waste of time, one that could have been spent on development and growth,” he replied, “However, if you could grant a few things to the Archive-”

“Before you go on, is it necessary to bring knowledge specifically to the Ru District and nowhere else, or does your district support the spread of information in all forms and to all? Depending on the answer, I might get you exactly what you want in a while, the moment that I figure out how to do one of the things that I wish to do. You should know that I am against the keeping of information from the world by the Greats.”

“In truth, while I would very much prefer to have the information all to myself, but the thing I wish for above all is the increase in the world’s available knowledge. After all, the books in our Bottomless Archive spread to the Ru District, the Ru District’s knowledge spreads to the south, everything from the south spreads to the rest of Yi City, and that then spreads to the world. If we gain something individually, then it will inevitably come out, just later, so you might as well get to it,” the Patriarch shrugged.

He didn’t ask for further details, nor did Wei Yi have too many to offer, as she was not yet sure how to accomplish the release of everything that the Greats had stolen and hidden away from the world.

All she knew about their operations was that they had to have an enormous array to monitor the world and pick up information from anywhere in Yi City, and if that existed, it must be possible to broadcast everything to the world instead. So long as she figured out the right way to do it, either by modifying the array or creating an entirely new one with its principles, she would be able to broadcast everything she ever wanted to the people of the world, whether it was techniques or knowledge of some of the better ideas from the other world.

No examples needed to be provided, in her opinion, whether one talked about the good or bad ideas of the worlds the otherworldly demons originated from.  There were more than enough obvious things out there.

“So, other than everything that I have already acquired, what can you offer me, and how much of it will be available to me?” she asked, “As in, can I obtain a little more so long as I give more?”

“There are some tomes I can provide you, and some cultivation materials, but anything beyond that will require you to give something more than assistance that you personally admitted you also wished to provide. Explain what you are able to give, and I will consider giving you some additional benefits from my district.”

“Give me a few of your jade slips. I’ll show you exactly what I can offer.”

He had a few on hand, so he took them out and showed them to her, needing to hold them up only for a little while for the slips to be filled to the brim with the various techniques that the Ascendant was willing to offer him.

None of them were her key methods, and not all were even particularly unique or uncommon, but that didn’t particularly matter when she was able to fill out quite that much. Any technique, when taken to a certain extreme, had the immense potential to change the world – an exaggeration, but not a particularly significant one – and certainly greatly improve their usability in a way that raised them to the level of, or above the level of rarer and stronger techniques.

This was especially true if this knowledge came alongside the improvement of the technique, which Wei Yi had also offered. For her, it was rather trivial to improve certain basic methods in moments.

“How much can all of this get me?”

“Before that, it would be easier to determine what it is you want. Then, the exact quantity or quality of information on techniques, as well as the skills themselves, should be easy enough for us to determine.”

She considered it for a moment before saying, “In terms of techniques, I want as many that I don’t yet have as I can get. They all benefit me in the long term, regardless of perceived quality. Your more unique methods are naturally preferred, like unique dual elemental cultivation methods or the Knowledge series of techniques, but I will not demand those. On the other hand, when it comes to resources, I need as much as I can get, so everything that you are unwilling to give in manuals and jade slips can be provided in planar stones of any element.”

“I know how many techniques I am willing to pass onto you, Ascendant, so we can begin with this and exchange for simpler items like planar stones later,” he pocketed the jade slips and looked over to the side of the archive, “Let us go and get a few more jade slips, which you can then fill as you wish. I will give you the exact amount I am willing to exchange for.”

In theory, she really didn’t need to bother with such an exchange, as most of the techniques were likely to be within the Bottomless Archive, and would thus become easy for her to obtain the moment that she stepped inside to deal with the Preservers of Eternity, but given the ancient nature of the structure, there were likely to be obstacles. Whether they came in the form of obstructing her spiritual perception or preventing her from scanning the containers of knowledge, it was simpler to do this.

Providing benefits to the Ru District in this way also made it far easier to request things of them in the future, and would make them more likely to side with her in the War of Ascendancy due to what they will have gained.

Of course, that wouldn’t stop the Ru Patriarch from acting against her if he concluded that he had sufficient reason to pick another side over her, whether it would be the Great Families or some other force, but it would make him less likely to do so, which was the most that she could hope for with people. There was also a distinct lack of powerful factions other than the Greats which were acting on the level of the world, meaning that even if he did not see the Ascendant’s Arbiters as being the most suitable side to ally with, he would have few other choices.

When he came back with several dozen jade slips, she was actually surprised at the price that he had decided to set for everything that she requested. With all of the techniques she knew, filling each of the slips would be incredibly easy while not revealing a single thing that she would actually want to keep from the Ru District.

In fact, the development of the simplest techniques would be beneficial to her more so than to the Ru family. They would lose some of their edge in terms of techniques, but she would ensure that the whole world developed as a result of the basic techniques being forward sufficiently far for the more advanced techniques to need to catch up. Once the common people realized that there was use for the simpler, weaker skills of the world, then there might be a surge of everyone with half an understanding of cultivation attempting to innovate and improve their skills, forcing those with higher realms to do the exact same.

She was not going to explain it to him, since she had already made it clear that he was offering her more benefits than himself, and she didn’t need to make things harder for herself. Simply filling the jade slips was sufficient, and she did so while they were still in his hands.

“There, done. Now, unless you want me to do anything else, I would like to get to cultivating, and receiving my planar stones. How much can one slip exchange for?”

“Hm… if all of your techniques will continue to be of this grade, then I can only give six stones per full slip, and only for the methods that you have not yet shared. Do not think that I will miss you trying to give away more Collapsing Cavern Fists, or anything of the sort,” the Patriarch said, “That technique is not useless, especially not with some of the things that I’ve noticed you adding to it, but having a dozen copies is not necessary.”

“I’d say that you would benefit, as the jade slips you use are prone to decay, among some other issues. Of course, I am not intending to sell them for much, since you should be able to replicate them easily enough on your own, albeit requiring a little longer to accomplish it than it would for me, but I wouldn’t mind selling a few copies to you.”

He shook his head, “Let us focus on the new techniques for now, and discuss other things later if you somehow still require the planar stones. I do not know what cultivation technique you use, but there are only so many planar stones that you should possibly require. Now, let me lead you over to the Bottomless Archive and provide you with a chamber away from the rest of the Preservers, who may otherwise bother you in an attempt to learn more from you. Given the many secret techniques you practice, I doubt that you want them all to be observed.”

A shrug was all that she provided, not just because there was no real reason for her to specify anything,  but also because the statement prompted her to ponder the matter. Most of her current methods involved a great number of Dao and Laws, and the Dao of Laws and the Law of Dao, if such a thing even existed. As such, was it even possible for people to duplicate any of her personal techniques without also comprehending the Dao and Laws that she used?

There was a good chance that she was onto something, but she still didn’t want to expose her skills to the world randomly. There was a good time and place to use all of her techniques, and this was not one of them.

Instead, she simply followed the Ru Patriarch, and made sure to grab up as many more techniques and pieces of information that she could while she was at it. There was a lot to scan, so she was not exactly bored even though their slow journey took quite a long while, at least in comparison to the speeds that she had gotten used to. Nonetheless, it was immensely helpful in resolving a few other problems while she was at it, so she was not going to complain, and she was not going to ask him to speed up while any benefit was still to be gained.

‘Knowledge Amplification is a very powerful method, but it is also rather complex one. I can understand it, but to cultivate it will require a notable degree of effort, especially in comparison to the majority of what I usually practice,’ the Ascendant frowned, biting off another piece of a planar stone that was reduced to a fraction of its initial size.

This was about as effective as absorbing the planar stones in an ordinary fashion and gave her something to do with her body while she made full use of her mind.

She had spent seven days sitting, practicing, cultivating, and attempting to fully integrate everything from the Preservers into her own arsenal. This was rather difficult, not because she didn’t know how to use the Knowledge-based methods – on the contrary, they worked with her ability to manifest books from the Ascendant’s Library far better than she had assumed they would – but due to the rather extensive nature of the Knowledge Amplification method. It wasn’t a simple technique, and might even be compared to a complete cultivation method in its complexity and reach.

There was nothing simple about any technique that changed everything about the way in which one used their energy and mental energy. If she had any method of a similar nature, it would be just as hard to integrate.

For instance, she could have found something to modify the nature of fire-type techniques entirely, and that would have forced her to modify the way in which she had acted, used planar energy, circulated it during the usage of techniques, and perhaps even breathed, depending on the way in which it was constructed. Fortunately, that last part was not necessary for her, but it was for the member of the Blood Alchemists, Long Huang, who had completely changed the way she acted in order to properly circulate two types of energy at the same time, within the same set of meridians, overcoming a seeming absolute restriction of the world.

No, what she needed to do was figure out a way to allow her to still make use of the techniques she currently practiced while practicing Knowledge Amplification, or the other way around. So long as the intended results were achieved, she didn’t really mind whether it was the technique or her own cultivation that was altered, provided that it didn’t result in long-term harm to her.

Most likely, it would be the Knowledge Amplification method that was going to change, as altering everything that she was already using just to allow it to work would be inefficient, at best.

While this was somewhat of a barrier for her at the moment, her cultivation and stockpiling of planar stones for the inevitable return to the Kong Prison Realm proceeded perfectly smoothly. She reached the eighth stage of Marked Core after two days and saw as the cosmic colours within the symbols on the core grew bolder and occupied more of the searing surface, making it very clear that this was not a mere phantom caused by a recent breakthrough. It was building up for her next realm.

At the same time, she also brought her physique cultivation to the same stage and equivalent realm, as it was necessary for it to keep up if she wanted to cultivate safely and keep the balance of her body in a stable state.

Her killing will rose by another stage as well, although this occurred spontaneously when she was thinking about some of the Great Families and their plans at the moment, so as to ensure that she didn’t run into any forces that she couldn’t take care of. This made the darkness of the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow significantly stronger, making it more stable, but not sufficiently so to allow it to move just yet.

‘One more stage, and I’ll be able to near the sixth realm, which would in turn bring me to a level where I can endure attacks made by those in the first generation of the Greats, hopefully,’ she thought to herself while the Ascendant’s Library was filled with so many tomes of Endless Calculation that she could barely move within it, ‘It may be a little difficult to break through as I keep adding more and more onto my techniques, but the result should be all the more impressive as a result. The linked channels that form, as well as the completed cosmic light within the characters, might be enough to put me on an even level to typical seventh realm experts, even with the growing gaps between realms.’

The fact that this did need to be considered did make her worry about the eighth and ninth realms, which were Imperfect Rift and Eternal Gate respectively, as she wasn’t sure that she’d be able to keep finding new methods and unusual perfected realm manifestations that would be able to keep her at a level of power that was at least one realm above her own. Had the power of those realms remained as low as the first or second realm, that would be fine, but this was not the case at all.

Instead, if the seventh realm was enough to dominate a district, the eighth would be able to challenge and change an entire region, while the ninth realm had the ability to dominate the Planar Continents.

The Eternal Gate realm was absolutely incomparable to the limited power of the Imperfect Rift realm, but the constant supply of planar energy that it could provide still stood miles above the finite supply offered by the Oblivion Halo realm. In comparison, the Linked Channels realm wasn’t too far beneath the seventh realm, nor was the fifth realm too far from the sixth, and the gap between the first and second realm could be said to be nearly non-existent, as proven with Wei Yi’s perfected stages allowing her to overcome the boundary easily enough.

Theoretically, so long as there was enough room to grow above that as well, which seemed to be the case due to the azure lights easily overcoming anything she had seen in the world so far, the boundaries between the highest realms would be feeble in comparison.

She wanted to find it, break it, and go far beyond anything imagined by those unaware of the azure lights, overcoming everything and ascending to a position that could rival those lights, and those that were responsible for them, if there was an additional layer to their existence. The Ascendant wished to live up to the title that the heavens forced upon her, and breach through the limits of reality with Law and, in some way, Justice.

It was hard to be sure how that would work, for many reason, not the least being that she had yet to truly understand justice as she had Law, and even that was clearly insufficient to achieve a full Dao.

“Ascendant, the seal at the Bottomless Archive is trembling. Come over right away!”

The voice of the Ru Patriarch reached her through a spiritual will connection, with him being located at the place where the barrier was weakest. She didn’t reply to him, mostly to avoid wasting time and her own processing power, and simply rose, cleared her head a little of the Endless Calculation tomes that were least likely to lead to anything productive, and headed down.