V5C40: Awakening the Soul, Part 1

“Were you expecting me, or did you just walk through the district and come across me by accident?” Wei Yi asked, walking alongside the Patriarch through a relatively empty street.

“With the things that had occurred in the Gang District, I would have been foolish to not expect your arrival. Combined with the knowledge obtained on your general identity, I had a vague idea of your appearance and behaviour, and I knew where you would come from. Using all of that, predicting where you might be, finding your traces, then tracking you to your meeting with an old friend was not difficult at all,” the Xin Patriarch answered.

“Oh, so this district does know about me? Did you catch some images of me being displayed before a crowd in the Chu District?”

“They did spread to this district, but I have advised those working under me to not allow them to spread further. It was not a particularly good idea to anger the Greats, but they were fortunately distracted soon enough, and so they didn’t bother pursuing the matter. You had dealt them a great blow, after all,” he said, “It likely did a great deal to ensure that our side did nothing, too.”

“Have the Ascendant’s Arbiters begun to raid districts?”

“No, but the majority of the districts have done the same. With the degree of anger your Arbiters have regarding the Great Families, I wouldn’t be surprised if attacks had occurred in any other case. Do you disagree?”

“As a matter of fact, I do, and I do so quite significantly. The people of the Ascendant’s Arbiters aren’t perfect, of course, as I don’t exactly have the luxury of being picky with who I involve in the matter. That being said, they have enough sense to understand the current situation, and not to attack the districts that have been forced under the control of the Greats, who abuse their position and power acquired through despicable means that have never been released to the world at large, and if they do not, I would very much like to inform them of the fact that they are acting like complete idiots. That being said, I still doubt there are any people like this in my Arbiters.”

The Xin Patriarch looked at her quietly for a few moments, then turned away, taking a calm breath while he seemed to ponder something.

“You have more trust in your faction than I would have assumed.”

“Did you think that I distrusted them all? Why would you ever assume that? I’ve revealed nearly everything to them and the rest of the district, including the true name of the Master of Yi City, a thing that could have earned me a great deal had I just kept it to myself and sold the information to those who would want it most.”

“Your technique is the reason. Nobody that I know of in your faction has ever used anything resembling the celestial energy that you cultivate.”

“In that case, you must not have been paying attention to our chat for as long as I had feared. As I had told my friend, I am literally the only one capable of cultivating the Ascendant’s Path, and I am the only one who can use the precursor to it, the Truth of the Universe or the Mysterious Character techniques,” she answered, “Before you ask, it is not because of a physique, soul – that I know of, at least – bloodline or anything else like it. Rather, I have a unique characteristic that allows me to use all of the elements, and the cosmic energy that you see is the result of the amalgamation.”

“Ah, if that is the case, then I suppose I understand. To believe you is rather difficult, but I shall put my trust in you simply due to our potential friendly relationship. We should be able to trust one another, after all, since we will be interacting with souls.”

“I have no reason to lie to you. With the amount of information I do have, if I want to keep something hidden, the easiest thing to do is reveal a dozen other truths instead. This is very much what I intend to do the moment that I am able to address the world at large with my own words, sharing countless techniques while avoiding those that would allow certain unique individuals to greatly destabilise the growth and balance that I wish to attain,” the Ascendant explained, “After all, revealing even half of the techniques I have will be enough for the world to pour over them for decades to come without completely understanding everything that I’ve been able to add or create.”

“Very well, the honesty will be taken as such. Please do not give me any reason to distrust you, or else it will be incredibly difficult for you to regain my trust.”

Wei Yi raised an eyebrow, “Now I feel like I’ve taken Yi Kun’s place. There is no good reason for you to explain anything basic to me, as it will neither distract me from paying attention to your actions and the path that we take to the Ancestral Hall, nor will it benefit me in the slightest, as I know the basic definitions of words, among other things.”

The Patriarch shrugged, not offer even the faintest glimpse of an explanation as he paused before the doors to their destination. They had spoken for a while, and made use of the speed that was accessible to those above the fourth realm, allowing them to reach the Ancestral Hall rather quickly. As some examples of the traditional structure were, this one was shut to the public, allowing access only to the district’s leaders, or those of some significance to it, meaning that the Xin Patriarch was required to open it for her.

He did so by pressing his hands together, palms and fingers mirroring one another, and released what appeared to be his aura. In normal circumstances, no aura could cause any significant changes, and required very specific materials and objects to even measure it.

In his case, however, a notable grey light shone through, flying out of his body and into the large double doors standing in their way, filling many of the shallow channels within the doors and turning them from a pure black to an almost marbled shade. From this alone, she could comprehend that there was one possibility that was likely to be true in the district of souls, which was that the Patriarch had made use of his particular Hidden Soul through the emanation of aura.

Thus, it also meant that it was possible for one’s aura to carry the property of their souls, which might also indicate that the nature of aura was not generated purely by one’s energy, but instead by their soul, amplified by the nature of their planar energy. This also indicated that spiritual perception could be influenced to some extent by the soul, as spiritual perception and aura alike were theoretically intrinsic properties of people in the world, merely being brought into reality via the support of planar energy cultivation.

‘If I am correct, then it might be possible to combine spiritual perception with my soul, thus resulting in imperceptible perception that is assured, thus making it more difficult for it to be blocked…’

She would not test her hypothesis here and now, mostly due to not being certain how to invoke the power of her soul while projecting any other type of force, but also because she was concerned that the Patriarch of the Xin District would be able to perceive it and learn more about her than she was willing to provide. After all, beside a basic property of a soul, she understood nothing about it.

For all she knew, all human memories, emotions and sensations were contained within the soul and its energy, and could be read so long as one knew how to do so. At this point, the Xin Patriarch was the most likely to know how to do this, roughly tied with the Ling Patriarch so long as he was as studious as his counterpart, and performing this attempt within the range of his spiritual perception would just be asking for trouble. She did not consider this to be a likely possibility, as it would be rather absurd according to her current comprehension of the soul, but it was still one.

‘If the soul can affect certain other properties and forms of energy, it might explain why some have unique characteristics that aren’t tied to physiques, and why the spiritual perception of some can be abnormally powerful in comparison to their peers. There aren’t many records of such things, but there are enough to make it clear that this cannot be pinned down to accidental spiritual will cultivation to the peak of the first realm, the only one that does not require an additional set of meridians.’

The doors opened, and Wei Yi proceeded after the Patriarch into the Ancestral Hall. They came to a grand set of steps down into the ground, located right within the centre of the structure, and proceeded down it.

Quickly, the straight staircase turned to the left, and began to spiral down and down until they reached another set of doors, having passed multiple floors on the way and ignored them.

This set of doors needed to be opened via the same method, although it seemed to take him quite a while in order to do so in comparison to the first pair of doors. It was clear that the doors were hiding something of value as a result, and when the doors finally opened, she was able to confirm this without a shadow of a doubt, whereas her spiritual perception was previously obscured by the material.

Before her was an enormous circular chamber, with a large ring around the inside that stood above the rest of the chamber, which descended down in a series of rings that each had a similar thickness but got progressively smaller as they got closer to the centre. Finally, the middle was a slightly larger circle, although the rest matched the rings. They were akin to a set of steps, each ring being two metres above the other, ending sharply with a sheer edge at the inside and a flat wall at the outside, with the only exception being a set of steps that progressed from the doorway to the middle of the chamber, branching off at the outer edge to provide access to the outermost ring.

Each one was five metres in length between the inner and outer edge, with the middle being seven metres in diameter, and each one was filled with a series of inscriptions, array nodes, and at least three large pillars on each ring. The pillars did not align with any clear pattern, instead resembling the stars that one might find within a constellation and then ascribe meaning to in an attempt at divination that lacked much practical use.

Most of the pillars were around three and four metres in diameter, and they were mostly opaque due to numerous layers of metal that was akin to either bronze or gold in appearance overlapping.

All of the chamber was made up of these types of metal, using the gold-like material at the very edges of the rings and bronze-like material for the rest of the floor and walls. All of the material, whether within the pillars or on the floor, was complete with numerous small inscription channels on the surface.

The innermost and the outermost ring were the only two segments lacking the pillars, and they were also the most distinct. As the outermost ring had a number of observation positions, some of which were occupied at the moment, it lacked any of the larger arrays used at the other rings. Meanwhile, the innermost circle had an area within which a person could stand, surrounded by several layers of array nodes with a clear intent to target that individual. Most of the arrays around the middle also looked to be targeting either it or the pillars on their level.

“This is quite a… thing you’ve got going on here. I think I am able to understand what most of these do – those arrays channel energy, those inscriptions hold it, that one projects it, and so on – but I cannot say that I fully understand the purpose. Something to do with the soul, I presume?”

“It is the latest project of the Xin family. Here, we seek to do what has been thought impossible for so long – stimulate the soul’s potential manually. Usually, to attain an attribute of the soul, certain unique and random circumstances need to take place, but with this, we might be able to overcome it and allow people to reach greater heights with their souls with far less risk,” the Xin Patriarch explained to her while bringing her onto the observation ring, “Through a complex resonance of energy and other effects, primarily the objects within the focusing pillars, we believe that we can target the soul directly, unlike all of our previous attempts.”

“In the pillars…” Wei Yi began, trying to search through them with spiritual perception, only to pause and give the Patriarch a concerned look, “Explain. Right now.”

“With the Dimensional Domain that you have started, we expected that you would recognise this. You call the objects otherworldly gifts, if our information is correct. Most of these were gathered over the years, but a few came from our ancestor. It is believed that they were an otherworldly demon, although that fact is one of the few that we can even attempt to guess at regarding them. Our records are limited.”

“So you have gathered a whole bunch of otherworldly gifts and are using them to affect the soul?”

“We are making use of their power, yes. We have succeeded in doing this with the individual otherworldly gifts, and we have gone to great lengths to verify the safety of the process. If this is what concerns you, then do not worry.”

“Theoretically, with something called an Assured Soul, I should be relatively safe, but I would still say that this is an enormous risk. Is the soul not a very significant aspect of the human body and mind? Are you certain that exposing it to the very items that drive so many otherworldly demons insane, mostly due to the ability of the azure lights within to completely overwhelm the Laws of the Planar Continents but dangerous even without them, is in any way wise when interacting with something so vital to the human body?”

“You consider this to be such a major threat?”

“Of course I do. Whatever is the case with the otherworldly gifts, whether there is a single place of origin or a million that end up functioning in similar manners, all including the same kind of azure light, at least as far as I’ve been able to observe, they all influence the mind. They all use properties of other worlds, those that cannot apply to our own, nor in full, anyway. Those that use them almost always go mad, and those that don’t rarely end up in a good state. This includes Kong Shi Meng.”

“Kong… Shi… Meng… He is an otherworldly demon? What? How could this possibly be true? How could he…”

“Ask yourself why he managed to become so powerful, so quickly, using a technique unknown to any, mastering countless techniques, creating many impressive structures and artefacts within just a few short years – relatively speaking to most cultivators. I make use of certain advantages too, with all of them coming together in a way that has allowed me to get this far.”

“… Let us return to the previous topic.”

“Sure. Anyway, all of these otherworldly gifts need to be used extremely – and I mean this – carefully, ideally after you’ve given me the chance to confirm that they’re clean of the azure lights. Also, how did none of them attach themselves to you? This has happened every time I observed an unowned gift.”

“How many have you observed? Both of us are likely to benefit from the information that the other has, after all.”

“I have personally witnessed an otherworldly gift entering a person’s body upon the death of the previous owner and the disappearance of the azure light within due to my interaction a total of five times, I believe. Technically, six, but that was a bit of an exceptional case, so I’m not sure it counts,” Wei Yi mentioned the Mask of Yama without explicitly describing it, as it remained somewhat hidden from the world and could thus benefit her later, “All of those times, the otherworldly gift simply poured into the person that next touched it.”

“Then, it may be a good thing that we have avoided interacting with a single confirmed otherworldly gift using our bodies, instead employing a variety of means to move them and place them safely within a container, such as the pillars that you see here.  However, if that works, then we should be able to ensure that any excess influence of the otherworldly gifts does not leak out.”

Wei Yi sighed, “Perhaps you do have that ability. I will still confirm that no azure lights remain.”

With the familiarity that she had with otherworldly gifts, demons, and other unusual matters, the Xin Patriarch saw no reason at all to refuse. If she wanted to steal the gifts, she would put herself at risk – that was how he saw it, at least – and would lose the opportunity to empower her own soul.

The nature of her soul was unclear, both to her and the Xin Patriarch, as he had not yet received the information that he had requested from his subordinate. As such, it was hard to be sure of the exact advantage that it could offer if there was even room for the strengthening of the attribute that it possessed. With what she had seen of the Xin Patriarch’s soul, she was not likely to give up the possibility of attaining something as extreme as practical invisibility before most experts before they became alerted to her presence through some other method, whether it was using their eyesight, ears, or the reports of others.

She descended down the first few steps to the second ring from the outside, stepping carefully on the metallic material to avoid affecting any of the array nodes or the inscription channels. One of the pillars containing an otherworldly gift was located only a few steps away, and she was able to come into direct contact with one quickly enough, holding out her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow.

Her energy could phase through the material, but she did not go too far, heading only to the very edge of the innermost layer, beyond which the gift was located, being held up above the floor with a number of methods.

‘Now, provided that there is an azure light in that thing, I should be able to remove it by stimulating the Truth of the Universe… Hm. I don’t feel anything in here, nor does the Truth of the Universe, I think,’ Wei Yi brought her Arm away and attempted to use her other hand instead, just to confirm that there was no difference in response, “This one seems to be clean of an azure light, although I could be failing to detect one. Are there records of capturing any of these otherworldly gifts, or is there nothing for me to be able to determine whether I am the one in the wrong here?”

“There are some records, but out of those I have studied, these otherworldly objects did not appear to release any kind of azure light. This might be an oversight on the part of the archivists, or perhaps they did not see anything at all, and yet this light was present somewhere. Will you need to inspect every otherworldly gift, then?”

“I will, but I cannot even be sure that my method is properly applying. Furthermore, if I attempt to use another, more reliable method, I might accidentally damage the otherworldly gifts themselves. This would not be ideal,” she admitted, “Furthermore, if they can only come together and function to affect the soul with the azure lights inside of them, then this whole thing will be completely broken until the eighth realm becomes accessible to us all.”

Her other method, that of the Purifier’s Seal, required her to partially damage whatever she wanted to use it on, find the spot in which the azure light existed, and also to accurately figure out an identifier that only applies to it and nothing else within the otherworldly gift. This would be rather difficult when she has no idea what any of the gifts do, as even the Xin family appeared to have limited knowledge in this regard, and so they would share the characteristics of being from another world, containing some degree of power, and possessing properties that she did not fully understand. That was all that she could really draw upon.

It would not be good enough for the Purifier’s Seal, and so she had to use only the means available to her via the Truth of the Universe. This did not usually function on azure lights that existed within otherworldly demons and their otherworldly gifts, but she had not had too many opportunities to make use of the Truth of the Universe’s array against an unowned gift, making any guessing difficult.

Going from otherworldly gift to otherworldly gift, she tested the response of the Truth of the Universe to the contents of the metal pillars, finding that none of them appeared to have an azure light within them that she was able to purge.

Whether this was due to them being absent from the otherworldly gifts, she couldn’t be sure, but she was actually hoping that she was only unable to detect the azure lights. The reason for this odd view, one that would put her and the others at risk, was that the azure lights were not usually prone to leaving their otherworldly gift around without someone to hold onto it, and the light itself. If they were all clean, then it would somehow mean that the people of the Xin District had somehow removed the azure lights, or managed to obtain countless otherworldly gifts of incredible power without the lights and without any others wishing to grab onto the items. It would indicate something very curious, something that might very well be a far more dangerous situation than azure lights being present.

Just to name an example, if the Xin District’s people were fully capable of eliminating azure lights on their own, then it would indicate that they possess a degree of power that greatly surpasses even the dedicated energy of the Truth of the Universe. After all, that otherworldly gift only has the power to convince the azure lights to return to wherever they came from, and even that requires direct access to them. For a force of the world to directly influence the lights would indicate something very strange.

She would, technically, be safer if the azure lights were still present, as they were not absolutely corrupting. They usually influenced the user only, which would mean that she would be relatively safe.

“You’ve been unable to find anything?”

“That’s the case, at least unless you will allow me to make use of certain means that have the chance to damage your gathered collection. I cannot guarantee success even if you do, though, so unless you do not require the full power of these otherworldly gifts – which might be granted by the very azure lights that I am attempting to remove, actually – it might be better to simply risk it.”

“Is this not in disagreement with your previous stance? With the potential danger posed by the otherworldly gifts, to suddenly be so certain after your method has apparently failed, or has had a chance of failing…”

“There are two reasons. The first is that I am rather curious to see the results of your creation, as it is rather difficult to imagine exactly how all of this will impact a soul, especially my own. The second is that the azure light poses the most threat to the user of the otherworldly gift. Provided that I am not the one using it, or, more precisely, that the gift is not inhabiting my body, it is likely that the overall influence will be reduced, which should make it safe enough to use this once even if all of the otherworldly gifts are inhabited by an azure light.”

Although the Xin Patriarch had an eyebrow slightly raised, he shrugged and waved her towards the centre of the chamber, “Very well, if you are agreeing to the experiment, then I would like to begin.”

“As would I. What exactly do I need to do?”

“Nothing in particular. Energy will be directed towards you, and you should attempt to bring out your soul to make it take in the most of that energy. The rest will act as planar energy, effectively, adding to your cultivation, but that should permit the majority to act upon the soul and imbue it with some fraction of the whole.”

The plan was rather simplistic in nature, which did not make her too confident in the success of the enormous creation, but the enormous combination of array and inscription was completely sufficient to overcome that. Even if the creators of something weren’t confident in their creation, she was able to understand many of the individual components and could identify that they were constructed with incredible prowess and quality. Provided that the theory made some sense, which was possible as the soul had to be somewhere within the human body, the outcome should be vaguely aligned with their current expectations.

She headed to the middle, but before taking the last step she turned to the Xin Patriarch, who had begun walking over to a point on the outermost observation ring.

“Is there an issue, Ascendant?”

“I’m not sure how much energy you’re ready to pump into this, and into the experiment as a whole, but my cultivation can be rather demanding. Unless you’re ready to provide a sufficient amount to me, I suspect that I could very well drain everything without you having even the slightest possibility of reaching my soul.”

“We will accept whatever costs we may endure, so long as you provide us with the results of our experiment.”

“Sure. Two more things, then. If something strange occurs, whether it is when I’m dealing with the azure lights that could emerge, or taking in the effect on my soul, none of you are permitted to share anything without my permission. Understood?”

“Is there a chance of something being significant?”

“Why the fuck are you asking something this obvious? I had told you not long ago that there is plenty that I can freely share, so if I deliberately ask you not to do so, why would I ever do so with anything that is insignificant?” Wei Yi asked, not holding back with the derision in her tone, “Normally, I’d control myself here, but we are about to mess with some otherworldly gifts and attempt to strengthen my very soul. I think it is significant for everything among us to be entirely clear. So, last thing – are my clothes going to survive this?”

“Theoretically, there should be no damage to any of the clothing on your body from affecting the soul, but the sheer quantity of energy-”

“Alright, I’ll change, then. Just get the thing prepared, don’t bother with me.”