V5C37: All Hail the Matriarch

She opened with an Elysian Blast, striking a shield of roots that quickly assembled before her actual target. Her arm scattered as usual while her energy recovered at a rapid pace, not having suffered much from the forced usage of the Proof of People’s Will array, and she rushed forward to bash the remains of the roots with her fist.

Her bloodline power made the planar construct even weaker than usual before her hand, breaking through without requiring the use of a technique and thus giving her room to build up an Obliteration beam within her arm’s meridians. Before unleashing it, she manifested her True Titanic Conqueror and directed it to fly back, with it settling at the very back of the current battlefield, its arms stretched out in the shape of a cross for no obvious reason, doing nothing for the moment.

“You are strong, aren’t you? How did my sibling manage to pull someone like you onto her side?” Gang Shu Wen spoke calmly as she pierced the barrier of roots, directing a thousand more towards her.

“You could have asked that before you decided to send several series of thugs against her, couldn’t you?” she replied just as calmly, as neither of them had yet unleashed their most powerful attacks, “The answer might surprise you.”

“Then provide it to me, and get your chance to strike while I am distracted by the surprise.”

“No particular reason at all, actually. I just came across her in the Qiang District, and decided to help her take over the district,” she intentionally showcased her smile to him as waited for the exact instant of surprise that he had promised her. On one hand, he should have been expecting something abnormal as a response, since he did have a basic comprehension of words that appeared to be superior to that of a large number of people she had fought so far, but it appeared that his loss due to the Proof of People’s Will had led him to believe something more sensible than what she offered.

Thus, when she admitted the truth, his hand froze at the wrong moment. In that moment, she thrust her arm forth and unleashed the Obliteration energy within.

Blackened crimson burst out and struck his body, shredding his outer robes but not going further through as a soft white glow consumed the destructive power. Through the wide open hole in the robes she was able to see a large amulet hanging from his neck on an ordinary-seeming white string, which was the source of the soft white glow.

It was round and thin, its diameter being near to the length of a man’s index finger. Lying on his chest without any obvious activity at the moment, it had completely avoided the perception of everyone else on the scene, and the moment that it did enter her vision, she was able to make a guess regarding the nature of this object. After all, things that completely bypassed spiritual perception, seemed as if they weren’t there at all unless viewed with one’s own eyes, and that had odd abilities that shouldn’t be possible within the framework of planar energy techniques, tended to only come from a single source, and only have one nature.

“And you have an otherworldly gift. Where from?” she asked, for she deserved one answer.

“I don’t know what you mean. I had found this within the Gang Ancestral Hall, and it is none of your concern what its initial origins were!” Gang Shu Wen stated, one hand almost trying to cover the amulet, “Fine, since you pose a danger to me, I shall not hold back any longer.”

He thrust forward with his other hand, another series of roots bursting out of the ground, except that these were closer to masses of elemental energy than the kind of thing found on an ordinary tree. It was as if he had switched from using the roots of an ordinary oak to that of a Wood Manifest Oak, a six-star material of incredible value to those seeking to amplify their power via external objects.

At the same time, she gave a mental command to the True Titanic Conqueror, which thrust its hand forth and summoned a series of Railgun Bolts, all of which stood still for just a moment before being fired at those radiant green roots. With force that could overwhelm the power of the Patriarchs of the northern districts easily, the bolts pierced them and exploded with further Obliteration energy, powered primarily by the four physiques that made up the Titanic Conqueror.

With him literally being blown away by the blast, Wei Yi finally activated the combination of the True Conqueror’s Eye and Elder Watcher, effectively stealing what power remained from the Proof of People’s Will in order to become the absolute ruler of the region, if only for a brief moment.

In that moment, she could finally display that which she had sought to attain with her Dao of Law, even if she was only replicating the true effect. Countless chains became visible to the whole district, binding and connecting all matter and energy in impossible ways, all of them overlapping and passing the same space but never touching and affecting one another, even when they did. Many such chains existed around the current Gang Patriarch, and they were formed from laws both natural and human, absolute and imagined, physical, emotional and spiritual. Simply considering quantity, the chains easily made up half of the total number in the district, at least out of those that became visible to the people of the Gang District.

Many of them extended to the hand of the Ascendant, who grasped them right away, the chains easily fitting in her hand as they had no true physical form.

“The people have spoken, Gang Shu Wen, and you did not listen. I promise you now, you and everyone whose ears I reach with my voice, that once the time comes for my decisions to be judged, I shall not refuse to listen,” Wei Yi said, her hand tightening, “Now, as the Ascendant and, seemingly, the only one in this world to ponder the Dao of Law, it is my role to ensure that the people’s voice-”

“No! Out of all people, you will not be the one to judge me!” Gang Shu Wen’s voice suddenly exploded as he grasped the amulet on his chest tightly and ripped it off the thread around his neck.

It struck one of the illusory chains, and actually appeared to collide with it. A singular ring of metal shook the district as the chains that linked to Wei Yi were shaken out of her grip, their pressure instantly crushing everything within her hand and being contained only barely by the star metal gauntlet, which ensured that the broken flesh could be kept in place and healed after a few moments. However, she knew that she couldn’t grab onto the chains in the same way as they had begun to resonate and shake violently due to the collision with the amulet.

‘What is the ability of that thing even supposed to be? Is it just an otherworldly property to affect the chains of… actually, it would be, given that the abilities of otherworldly gifts always go against the Laws of the world in ways that couldn’t possibly align with the chains and how they usually function,’ she thought, turning to the empty space where her left arm would be, had her mental image of it not been all that was left of it.

There was one thing that could hold onto it, and it was something made of overwhelming energy aligned with the Dao of Law, and thus empowered by it and everything that she had comprehended through it. All that she needed was a stable limb to affect the chains sufficiently, and not even one that moved, which was her ideal form of the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, but she had yet to make the step to a stable limb. Making sudden breakthroughs was easiest when a person was under pressure, which was obvious enough, and she did have the materials and theoretical elements that she needed to go beyond her current state, but she didn’t exactly have the time.

As a result, she had to pull out a few of her otherworldly gifts in order to make use of the instant that she had most efficiently.

She thrust her mental image of the arm out to the side and stimulated her energy, transforming it into a grey dust that flooded out of the wound on her arm. It formed into the basic image of an arm, with five fingers being recognisable, albeit without any hints of necessary detail or the meridians that made up her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow.

If she had the ability to enter the Realm of Potential, she would, but the otherworldly gift was located in the Kong Prison Realm, rather than in her own body, mental domain or dantian. As a result, all of the mental processing had to be done entirely on her own, for using the Truth of the Universe would ultimately damage or subvert her project. All that she was able to put to use was the House of Gold’s store of artefacts, which she used as reference for her work, with the planar energy that she had stored on the inside being condensed into an independent artefact rather than merging it into the shards of her previous sword. In terms of pure energy quantity, it did not benefit her as she wasn’t going to be able to directly use it anyway, but it did advance her understanding of channels themselves.

The Artefact Combinator was not one that functioned in a manner that aligned with the Laws of the Planar Continents, but the products were still partially aligned, albeit stabilised in an impossible manner if the support of the otherworldly gift is not provided. So long as she formed the right kind of artefacts and then made them merge within her House of Gold, she could then guarantee results that would be of some use to her.

Indeed, only moments after she began – and almost a minute in her own perception of time, as she brought the speed at which her mind processed matters as high as she could without allowing it to happen naturally – the random artefacts consisting purely of planar energy that she had manifested provided her with numerous interesting possibilities, allowing the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow to begin its full manifestation upon her shoulder wound. All of the grey dust collapsed inwards, losing the shape of the arm but gaining the form of numerous meridians and veins, coiled tightly around a non-existent series of bones.

From the open wound, her cosmic energy flowed out and surrounded the grey dust, mingling with it just a little but otherwise remaining separate. It formed the channels within which the grey dust existed, shimmering and gleaming with wonderful light.

Meanwhile, within the House of Gold, she began to manifest artefacts that combined various types of energy together, and then forcefully merged planar energy and bloodline power with killing will and physique energy, and combinations like them. Quickly, the combined artefacts gained more and more strange channels that she could quickly identify as being impossible for her own needs, but there were still useful elements found within those products, which she had quickly broken down into energy and reused quickly, meaning that her array of experimental artefacts grew with each moment.

Soon, spiritual will seemed to pour slowly from her veins, forming a web-like network all over the arm, arranging themselves into the form of a nervous system within an ordinary body.

All of them entwined with the meridians formed with planar energy, both in the form of grey dust and cosmic energy, forming intricate connections that allowed them to function together and resonate in a way that she could hardly replicate in any other place, and in any other time. Perhaps her creation now would be much like the Proof of People’s Will, which had yet to be replicated despite being open for the viewing of the Gang family ever since it had been created.

The moment that she witnessed a surprising combination within the House of Gold, her plan was complete, and she released her physique energy and bloodline power at the same time. Her bloodline power formed into the veins of her arm, and the physique energy produced the flesh, with the only exception being a single gleaming physique vein. With all of this, her arm almost resembled a see-through version of an ordinary human arm, but an expert glance could perceive that nothing truly matched, nor was a single element quite where it should be. This was part of her initial need to transform the arm’s structure to avoid the world’s restrictions, and she had only refined the design.

Even at her fastest, a few seconds had passed, and the Patriarch gazing upon her had noticed what she was attempting to do, although he did not understand it. Seeing that his amulet had some kind of effect, he gave it a glance before attempting to strike the chains that surrounded him a second time.

“CEASE!”

A forceful exclamation stopped his body, restraining him for a moment – but a moment was sufficient for him to see a boundless black smoke rush out of Wei Yi’s body, covering up the network of energy.

It surged into a powerful arm, with thick claws made up of smoke that reached the density of solid, almost crystalline matter, resulting in five points at which the smoke did not billow or dissipate, though it did remain in glorious motion. The entire arm was covered in a thinner yet more voluminous killing intent, streaming up to her shoulder and merging with her flesh, with some even entering her veins and colouring them black as a result.

Her eyes gleamed due to the sudden feeling from a long-lost limb, and although it was not a wise thing to do, she tried to bring it up to her chest, where she might have a better view of the remade and improved Arm of Slaughtering Shadow.

Immediately, she had confirmation of the fact that she still had work to do, for it did not move smoothly as her mind imagined the movement. Rather, the smoke and everything within lost its structure in the first place and rushed to its new final location, not breaking apart completely but failing to do enough to accomplish everything that movement usually would.

She could grab something and throw it, provided that it could be held onto by a mass of smoke, but if she wished to do something intricate, something that needed a great deal of precision and minute rapid movements, she would have no success at all. Furthermore, against most opponents, an unstable mass of raw energy would not be enough, so she could only hold onto those that were two realms below her with any degree of consistency. This was most unfortunate, but it was still more than she could have expected from such a rushed attempt, and most importantly it could now be improved until full stability in movement was feasible.

For now, before the Patriarch could move again, she reached out with the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow and grasped the chains, negating their vibrating resonance with a tight, unbreakable grip.

“The people’s voice shall be heard, and you are judged unworthy of your station!”

Thus, she pulled at the chains, her arm breaking into smoke and bringing the chains closer to herself before stabilising in a different position, leaving her to watch the results.

She had pulled on the chains of responsibility, of power, of expectation, and most importantly, that of tradition. The rest were brought upon the man by all kinds of events and causes, but the chains of responsibility were accepted by the leaders of the Gang District willingly, and thus out of every single restriction, this one was easily the most effective. Just by applying sufficient force to these bindings, so long as this force was one that could directly affect the chains themselves rather than the many layers of reality between the material and the conceptual, one could end a life entirely, truly or otherwise.

The Patriarch’s powerful figure instantly faded with the pull of the chains, the planar energy within his body burst out uncontrollably, as if the walls of his dantian had ruptured and his cultivation collapsed right away.

From the seventh realm, he fell straight into the first stage of the third realm, this realm remaining only due to the endurance of his planar anchor. All of his gathered energy was lost to the air around him, quickly being absorbed by everyone in the district without any intentional activity on their part. Such an enormous quantity of energy belonged within the body of another, and thus it split across the population in such a manner that it did not push any of them through a full realm.

While a lot about him dissipated in an instant, what was of greatest significance was the fate of the amulet that he had been holding onto. When the chains of Law struck it, focused by the Ascendant’s will, it attempted to repeal them, but with each chain that pressed upon it the resistance of the otherworldly gift lessened. Half were enough to suppress it entirely, but once every single chain acted upon it, the impossible happened right before her eyes. Through the force of the world, and the world alone, an otherworldly object cracked, countless small fractures appeared, and dull azure light shone from within, illuminating the streets.

The next moment, this otherworldly gift burst, breaking apart into small particles of azure light that shrunk and faded, no hint of the main azure light within.

Perhaps that is why it broke apart so easily, as it lacked the support of the azure light that permitted most otherworldly gifts to completely surpass the Laws of reality, but the sheer impressive nature of the achievement could not be ignored by anyone aware of the true nature of the item used by the Patriarch.

Quickly, the chains faded, the excess energy faded, the remaining influence of the Proof of People’s Will and thus the Conqueror’s Eye and Elder Watcher abilities faded, and the district was left in relative silence. All activity ceased for a while, and even when the guardians emerged to examine what it was that had occurred within their district, they could not bring themselves to act against the seeming attacker, nor to support the original candidate for Matriarch. It was hard to act when their senses could barely grasp what had just occurred, but were able to feel the strange change to the world.

None of the Laws of reality were altered by the Ascendant, of course, but with her defeat of an otherworldly gift and the usage of so many chains, the air itself felt different.

“… People of the Gang District, your Patriarch has fallen, and there is another that would take his place. She and I stand on the same side, at least for now, and I would suggest that all of you see an alternative path that finally steps away from tradition and grows, to form new and superior ways,” Wei Yi spoke after the long pause, being the first to interrupt it with more than uncertain movement on the streets, “If you have some kind of disagreement with the situation, then remember that I am here, and that I am proof that change can be beneficial. Remember that if you do decide to put it down and ensure that the district will lack any chance of keeping up with the world.”

Her words were not addressed at anyone in particular, for the guardians and the common people, as well as all those in between, for all of them had the potential to influence the district. In sufficient numbers, even the weakest force could alter anything that they wished to, as the common citizens could depart from the district and leave a Patriarch with nothing to command and nobody to rule, if they so wished. The stronger cultivators could take the fight directly to the leaders, as Wei Yi had just done.

For that reason, she did not expect an immediate response from anyone. She cancelled the effects of her other physiques and landed on the ground, her eyes immediately drifting to her Arm.

It remained where it had been, the mass of smoke blurring and breaking apart during movement of any kind, but it stabilised once she landed, her left hand slightly raised and the palm facing upwards for her own viewing. The shape was alike to the original left arm’s appearance in her killing will state, save for the obvious lack of flesh, blood or bones, but the appearance was significantly more aggressive as a result of the billowing smoke. Approaching someone for the first time with such an arm displayed to them in full could easily convince them of her hostile intent, even if she was careful not to release a drop of killing intent. Her claws had already not been ideal for certain peaceful activities, but even in a more stable state it would be a little too intimidating for casual relations.

She flipped her hand, finding that part of the reason for the instability was that the smoke did not attempt to turn organically, but instead passed through itself in order to arrive at its final position as quickly as possible.

This was preferable in certain situations, like when she simply needed to switch the position of her Arm and hand as quickly as possible, but for true, stable movement and continuous motions, it was completely unacceptable. Replacing it would be rather difficult for multiple reasons, prime amongst which was that rather than moving in a mass of smoke and changing position once ever few seconds at most, she would instead need to have the arm stably assume a form many times a second.

Due to this she did not rush to change anything, and simply stuck with what she had for the moment. It was sufficient for many of the things that she had wanted to have an arm back for, so she was more focused on understanding just what it was that she could and could not do using the Arms current state. A few experiments did not even require any obvious movements and action on her part, so she would naturally proceed with them before even attempting to proceed with anything that she needed to take care of here in the Gang District.

The people were still shocked from everything that had just happened, while the guardians seemed to be gravitating towards Gang Xiu Ling rather than her, so she had plenty of time.

‘I’d love to verify how Elysian Blast will now function, as I cannot exactly go through the effort of completely reconstructing the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow each time that I use the technique, but an attack right now will just make them more suspicious of me and my intentions, even if I merely strike the air,’ she thought, finally breaking her gaze away from the Arm.

Funnily enough, her reaction to her regaining a limb was far greater than gaining an entirely new body part, a fact that she had noticed not long after she discovered her difficulty in taking her gaze away from the Arm. Unlike her dick, which she certainly couldn’t complain about in most aspects, the left arm was one that she really needed and had grown reliant upon as her semi-dominant arm, as far back as in the Yi District, where she used both at various times, mostly depending on her preference. She preferred using the left arm for forging weapons, for instance, and so it was convenient that she had finished some semblance of a stable Arm of Slaughtering Shadow prior to needing to reassemble her weapon.

“Um… I hadn’t been expecting this kind of situation, I’ll be honest,” Gang Ya Hui’s voice reached her from the side, prompting her to turn casually, “Shu Wen seems to be… worse than dead, actually.”

“He would be. His cultivation is, effectively, still at the third realm, but he won’t be able to actively make use of that kind of power for a long while. One of his secret weapons is also gone, and his body should have suffered a great deal as a result of the sudden loss of energy,” Wei Yi replied, folding her arms and involuntarily smiling when she felt the two limbs touch and linger, “You should speak to Gang Xiu Ling as soon as you have the time.”

“I will, don’t you worry. Her argumentative skills clearly need more work, I can tell, but she has a chance of going far. So long as you remain in touch, then she should develop into a decent Matriarch for us.”

“You already suspect that I won’t remain here, don’t you?”

“You’re the Ascendant. We don’t know much, but the fact that you keep travelling from district to district is very much obvious. Also, I did manage to receive some rumours regarding your presence at all of the districts south of our own, and I have heard that you came from the west, so you had likely been at the Bao District as well. You wouldn’t just stay in the Gang District when your territory is at the north, either,” the leader of the New Community said, taking her silence as an answer, “Will you come back here, though?”

“Most likely, you will see me again. However, I cannot reveal too much yet, for several reasons. If you do see me again, it will likely be in a way that will allow you to get in contact with me much more easily from then on,” Wei Yi informed her.

Gang Ya Hui nodded, “Last thing, then. You do support our New Community, right?”

“Strange question after what had just happened. No, I don’t think that tradition – more precisely, absolute adherence to it without a second thought – is the best path for any district. Unrestrained change is not particularly good either, as some things are in place for a reason, but both you and some of your people seem to realise that without the need for me to tell you.”

“I was just wondering whether you had acted for us, or purely for yourself. I mean, you wouldn’t actually admit anything to me, but-”

“Don’t know if you know yet, but I am attempting to unify Yi City yet again. I want to bring every district together, regain some territory from the outside if there’s an opportune moment for it, and I want to ensure that what I end up creating is superior to Yi City of old. There were clearly a lot of unforeseen problems that occurred after the Master of Yi City disappeared, and I would rather not leave Yi City with a bunch of similar problems at the end of my time, whenever that is,” Wei Yi explained, “For that reason, whenever I attempt to gain more territory, influence and power, it is essential that I do not do so by harming Yi City overall.

“Gang Xiu Ling was indeed a risk, but combined with a sensible influence, I think that the changes to the district will lead to an overall improvement. After all, this place has remained stagnant for an immense length of time, and in that time the other districts had grown and explored various possibilities even as their overall power declined and their territory was forcefully reduced and challenged, time and time again. It wouldn’t be a good idea for Gang Shu Wen to remain in power for too long, in short.”

“True, I suppose… In that case, hail the Matriarch, and have a good day.”

“Don’t say that to her face, please.”

“I’ll think about it.”