V5C47: The Duel of Learning

There was little of note to describe about most of the battles that took place around the Ascendant. Although there were certainly those that were capable and talented, especially the Wu family member with a vision state and, as much as she hated yet expected it, Wu Chao, most were not exhibiting their greatest skills nor were they fighting the most suitable foes.

Most had ended up matching up with those that were significantly different to them in one way or another, allowing them to end the battle quickly enough as a result. If two people with significantly disparate attributes faced off against one another, with one having extreme strength and the other possessing extreme speed and dexterity, just to provide an example, then it was almost inevitable that most displays of swordsmanship would end up on the side, instead concluding based on the one that best used their attribute. A fast enough attack could land before the other was able to act, or a significantly strong hit could knock a weapon out of a person’s hand and leave them defenceless.

This happened even with the attempted equalisation of physical prowess for all involved, as the array beneath the Master’s Square wasn’t exactly perfect, nor made to match everyone exactly.

Levelling out strength entirely wouldn’t be very good even in this kind of conflict, as some were taller and stronger and more focused on a degree of brute force. Such inequalities do exist throughout the world and would persist to do so unless everyone was temporarily placed into different bodies specifically made for the fights. This was theoretically possible so long as one made use of an illusory realm, but that would come with its own problems, like requiring all that entered to retrain themselves to adjust to a new body.

Then, if one wanted to truly level out the playing field, they would need to force all into either male or female bodies, which would come with its own level of awkwardness and discomfort for either a smaller or larger portion of the combatants, yielding little overall benefit.

Wei Yi still paid attention to all that were involved, and made sure that she was keeping it all within her Ascendant’s Library, where she extracted any interesting or important elements from within the scenes of battle for future use. Mainly, she was trying to understand the more complex meaning of what she was seeing, and the Sword Dao itself. There was a great deal to ponder in that regard, as unlike the Dao of Law, for instance, it was not truly a natural aspect of reality, not necessarily.

There was no such thing as a sword in the natural realm, and so she had to approach matters from that perspective. One could argue that, since the ultimate realm of the Sword Dao and techniques was meant to permit one to use anything as a sword, that this kind of perspective would not be beneficial to her pursuit, but the core of Dao as a concept was that there were multiple ways to view any single Dao. Many of her Dao were viewed through the lens of Law, Ascendant, or Absolute principles, and there was no reason that she couldn’t see the Sword Dao through the lens of Law, or perhaps through some other view if it worked out better for her.

It was rather difficult to figure out a Dao, though, especially when she attempted to use a view that the heavens could not assist her with.

For all she knew, the heavens also lacked the same perspective on the Sword Dao as she did, which might be the case if they viewed the world as being, in a way, constant since the manifestation of human civilization. In that case, it would be the second Dao that she was attempting to force through on her own without seeing any contribution from the heavens, and if she managed to succeed here or with the Dao of Law, she would be incredibly pleased to be able to shove it in their face – if the heavens even had such a thing – before she punched them a few million times.

‘Would the heavens even have a gender? Depending on their exact nature, they should either lack human features, or be an embodiment of all of them to some extent, and the latter would make it far easier to punch them… I’d love to do so right now, even if it backfired to a certain extent, as it might very well make it easier for me to control my killing intent and subdue the constant forceful rush of killing will ahead of the other cultivation paths,’ she thought, waiting a little longer for her turn to fight.

Before it was her turn, she made one more observation, which was that the defeated were not always told to vacate the area. Just as with the first part of the Selection, the immense aura that knocked out most of the original participants, so long as the person did not leave and surrender on their own, they were permitted to remain. Far more people did this now that they knew that this was a genuine option, and it meant that only half of those that were defeated ended up leaving the square. It was likely that they wouldn’t stand as good a chance to win the position of the Heavenly Sword in the end even if they did well in the other parts of the Selection, as someone that succeeded in every step would be a superior Heavenly Master than one that did not perform exceptionally.

It was close to the way in which things were handled in a number of other districts, as she had herself experienced, except that it was for a far more significant position than a new recruit for some faction.

“Now that this battle has concluded, it is Wei Yi’s turn to select an opponent,” the second man of the Wu District said after a short while, waving his hand in order to clear the area where one woman had just been bested rather blatantly by a man with a far greater cultivation and age, “All those that have not yet fought are eligible foes, save for Wu Chao.”

“Then, I can just fight that one,” the Ascendant pointed almost at random, quickly finding an opponent that would suit her current state the most. She selected a man with no particular strengths, but a very good grasp of using the sword to defend and attack without ever providing any obvious openings.

He had yet to fight, but this much was clear from the surface of his mind, where various tactics and methods for dealing with attacks and defences that occurred before him popped up endlessly. His body wasn’t particularly dexterous nor strong, hence her perception of his average physical abilities, and from his current stance, it was clear that his actual technique wasn’t exceptional either, meaning that his mental images and understanding of the battle would be the only things that he could rely upon with any surety.

This would let her please the five figures from the Wu District, who presumably acted as judges in this instance, and give her the opportunity to ponder the way in which a sword was used.

In order to comprehend a Dao, it was necessary to see the ultimate and simplest purpose of the aspect of reality she was pondering. Swords were used in combat, and they had plenty of distinct uses due to their relative simplicity. A sword was simply a length of metal attached to a hilt, generally with a guard that could be as simple as a bar of material between the blade and grip, and so it was possible to stab and slash, as well as block numerous parts of the body while revealing others, intentionally or otherwise.

All of that depended on how the weapon was held, who held it, how they wished to use it, and so on.

‘I technically have Minor Achievement in the Sword Dao already, but that hardly means anything when most of that is simply a bonus given to me by the world. My own understanding of the Dao is as shallow as a flat floor with a drop of water somewhere on it, and this is not good enough if I am to use the sword as my primary weapon despite my preference for fists and claws… When I create the new blade from the shards of the old, it must be made with the absolute peak of knowledge, so that it can be as powerful as the weapon of a Master of Yi City must be,’ the Ascendant thought, taking her place in the segment of the Master’s Square designated for one of the many fights taking place around the same time as one another.

With the sword given to her in her right hand, she quickly performed a few movements in order to get accustomed to the weapon’s size and speed, then slightly bended her knees and looked the man in the eyes.

He met her gaze confidently in the first moment, and far less so in the next, a variety of thoughts and emotions arising within his surface thoughts. Most of them were about the gem-like appearance of her irises, the circles within them, and the numerous other abnormalities that were obvious about her eyes and face. Since she didn’t try to hide any of that, it was inevitable that her features were noticed and stunned a relatively young lad into still silence for a while.

The moment that he realised that he was doing nothing relevant to the battle, he shut his eyes and shook his head lightly, his mind quickly filling with images of swords and combat.

Aside from the speed of his recovery, Wei Yi was very much happy with his mental view of the upcoming battle, as he had decently analysed her and made a number of presumptions regarding the ways in which she might fight. He was not completely right – he was mostly wrong, in fact – but it was far more of a capable guess than some random swordsman might have.

He was a hidden talent, and so she was going to take advantage of that while also providing him with a bit of support with her own as a repayment for the favour. Whether he gained much was up to him, and whatever he ended up doing with it was none of her concern, as he simply couldn’t compete with the sheer quantity of experience that she had, combined with the extreme calculative ability of her mind. So long as she wished to win against the man, she would do so, the only question was how long it would take her.

“You may begin at any time,” the second man said calmly, his attention quickly shifting away to the rest of the Master’s Square as there was no reason for him to pay particular attention to any one of the duels taking place at the moment.

At that point, the two of them began, the Ascendant going in first as this would force her foe to go on the defensive and demonstrate the various moves that he had been imagining within his mind. His attacks would not take as much thought from her to handle, and this would undermine the whole point of this exercise, and limit the amount that she would be able to take away from it. With few chances of great success as is, she really needed every little bonus that she could get.

The following few slashes were hardly exceptional, as they were not meant to be, nor was the defence against them too extreme. It was skilful and fast while avoiding the exposure of openings to her, which was noteworthy, but when she did not make use of any exceptional movements he did not need to use any exceptional defences.

She slowly stepped up her assault and the intensity of her attacks, as well as their complexity, but she did not pay much attention to the progress of the fight. Her own stamina might as well be boundless, and the stamina of her foe would last for however long it could, so she didn’t have any necessity to do everything within a single moment. This was the blessing of an event that she could not accelerate, which was more of a curse if all that she could do was sit in place and do nothing. Most of her mind was dedicated to the processing of the sword movements themselves, irrespective of the context of the battle, although that context was also significant in a different way.

It was a little strange to look at them in such a manner, especially after the effort she had invested into bringing every movement together into a complete philosophy, but the biggest challenge was in finding some kind of greater meaning or purpose to them. There needed to be some kind of principle to base her proper step into the Sword Dao, and she could not determine one even after fifty blows were exchanged.

That wasn’t a large number, though, so she kept going, and kept arranging everything she did within the Ascendant’s Library, each image of each strike manifesting within the illusory Kong Prison Realm.

The wall of images grew to an enormous dome that soon surrounded the entire mental domain as her core had done in reality. Some were very similar, others were not, but all showcased an attempt by her, and the rebuttal by her enemy. In some cases, the latter was executed masterfully, in others it was hard to describe it quite as kindly, but he still proved effective enough.

So, the fight went on.

And on.

And on.

For her, thanks to the ability of her mind to accelerate itself and slow down the time around it, at least in terms of her perception of it, she was sitting within her mental domain for many days, if not weeks by the point that she was running out of things to draw from her current opponent.

Sure, she was battling a genius in some regards, but unlike the tales that the otherworldly demons would speak of, there was no possibility for anyone to grow infinitely in a single battle, unless that battle itself was infinite, and provided sufficient time for one to pause, consider and understand all events that had taken place up to that point. This was simply how things worked, for no mind was flawless and instant, not even her own, not even when it functioned at its best and correctly caught onto all significant details.

Thus, after the few initial bursts of skill, he began to tire and stagnate, failing more and more in his actions, all the while she lacked any coherent understanding of what it was that she was even working towards. She struggled to even figure out the perspective from which to approach her Sword Dao.

In the case of the Ascendant’s Dao, she would need to understand a way in which swordsmanship allowed one to elevate themselves beyond all those around them. This might seem easy enough, given that swordsmen could easily defeat several other men if they used their strengths correctly, but that did not give them true ascension in any meaning of the term. Through usage of the sword alone, they could not avoid illness or injury, nor could they cut off the ever-approaching end of their lifespan and live eternally, unbowed by the limits imposed upon them and all the world by the ever-silent heavens, or whatever other force had the ability if not the right to dictate such a thing.

The Dao of Law had little to say regarding the natural laws of swordsmanship, or the usage of a weapon in general. One might say something about the way in which it was natural to make use of tools to amplify one’s strengths, but she felt that there was something missing in that statement, and that it was not sufficient nor quite in line with her own definition of Law. It might just be a minor lacking aspect.

She couldn’t decide whether it was better or worse that she seemed to get more insight into the matter of Dao itself than in the Sword Dao, Weapon Dao, or anything else of the sort. From what she could observe with the structure of Dao and techniques in the Truth of the Universe, the Dao attained from the support of the heavens were hardly complete when reaching the Full Success stage, and would go on to be developed through a great number of nameless stages, but this should not align with the true nature of something as powerful as Dao. In theory, the moment that one comprehended enough of any Dao to touch it even a little, their ability and power in that field would vastly surpass that of most others, and of all in a similar power bracket.

One thing that would be certain would be an innate vision state, much alike to those she had gained via the Great Stride stage in the Dao of Law, Planar Dao and Earth Dao, just to name a few. This would be the first true stage of a journey to mastery of a Dao, but with little personal experience, she did not want to go too far in her guesswork. It might well prove to be right even if she assumed the roles and names of other stages, but she wasn’t in a rush to catalogue them even if they were feasible.

To truly grasp a Dao, she would, after all, need to reach a similar level of comprehension to the one the heavens could bestow, and that was no easy task no matter how one looked at it.

Even if the heavens never spent a moment deliberating on the nature of any Dao, and purely observed the reality around them without seeking to gain much from it, their understanding of many natural phenomena would vastly surpass that of all but the oldest and most powerful. The dragons, phoenixes and qilins that had been at the ninth realm and persisted, for instance, could have a small fraction of that same knowledge through a great amount of hard work and perseverance, and yet she lacked both the time and, for the moment, power.

Her sixth realm might be far superior to that of any other cultivator she knew of, but in the face of the unlimited flow of energy in the eighth and ninth realms, she might as well be a joke. The weakest of the Primordial Deities, if they awakened now, might be able to best her effortlessly.

She had to advance her abilities as quickly as possible just in case, but it was incredibly difficult to do so while her mind was unable to come up with anything sufficiently sophisticated to fulfil the criteria of Dao. The true stage of Dao was not necessary, as she acquired a certain degree of influence over the Dao even while the heavens were contributing most of their knowledge in place of her own understanding, but every Day at Full Success should grant her greater ability to resolve all kinds of threats. Simply having the Dao of Law at the Great Stride stage was, after all, enough for her to rebuild districts, so having a dozen more would never hurt.

‘Unfortunately, being aware of the necessity has not advanced the Sword Dao in any way, so that’s not particularly beneficial… What exactly am I missing here?’

The Ascendant gazed around the numerous images of movements, stances and attacks, looking over all of them time and time again, making them spin around her while she deliberated on them so that she didn’t have to rotate herself instead. Within her mind, doing either thing was about as simple, and neither could cause her any discomfort, since most sources of those came from the body and not the mind, but sticking with what was more consistent with her typical state was significantly more helpful, or so she felt, at least.

‘What is the Law-based reference point for all of this? The method for ascension contained within? Where exactly is it? How in the world is it so difficult to find something that should be so simple?’ she couldn’t help but question, as the Dao of Law seemed to come far more naturally, the support of the heavens not being a factor given that they should be assisting her in this case as well, ‘It would make a great deal of sense if I have a certain affinity for it and not for the Sword Dao… in which case, I should really be focusing more so on the Weapon Dao and Hand Dao, the latter of which will be easier to progress in as I naturally gravitated towards using my hands and claws, once I got those and had the chance to get used to having them.’

Those two could be understood through swordsmanship and combat, fortunately enough, so she did not need to dispose of everything she had been attempting to understand, but she would need to include a far greater quantity of images and motions in order to get a full comprehension of the Weapon Dao. Depending on how she put it, she might even be able to include the Hand Dao in there – so long as she believed this to be the case, and found a way to correctly align it with her vision of the Dao, then there should be no issues whatsoever – but she did not believe this to be a good way to go.

For there to be a meaning to the term, some distinction between what were and were not weapons needed to be established, giving her a clear quantity of weapons and concepts to work with and develop her thoughts on.

Otherwise, if her hands were to be considered weapons, why not her legs and feet? If all of her body was a weapon, then what makes a random leaf any different? All things, regardless of how dangerous they might be on first glance, have the potential to harm or outright kill a person in certain circumstances, so why not classify the entirety of the world as a deadly weapon? After that, how would she ever be able to summarise all of that under any simple principles.

This would not align with her understanding of weapons, hand, feet or whatever else – she lacked any significant understanding of the third factor in particular, having only studied some leg techniques and having looked at some feet before, but hardly to the same extent as she was not attempting to understand weaponry and various hand-based techniques.

‘Hm. Legs aren’t that bad, though… and here is me clearly failing to focus on this point. It appears that the inspiration that I require is not currently present, since I am managing to think of something like that instead of something far more important. Usually, I’m able to focus my attention onto more relevant tasks, so clearly there isn’t much benefit to continuing this battle. I’ve likely bored everyone around me already, so if they were hoping for a rapid and impressive victory, they might be rather disappointed, provided that they fail to comprehend why I did not go for such a thing.’

She froze the spinning scene within her mental domain and returned to reality, quickly elevating her strength and speed and catching her opponent off guard. With a well-placed blow, she knocked the sword out of his hand easily, then brought it to the side of his neck before he could attempt to act.

“There.”

“You… while you were fighting me, were you actually focusing on our fight? Your eyes seemed a little dull the whole way through…” her opponent asked quietly, freezing on the spot.

“I was, technically speaking. I wasn’t really trying to win up until now, though. Since you did fine, you don’t need to go anywhere unless those five tell you to,” she told him, glancing at the sword that she was fighting with and finding a great number of scratches and chipped parts that one might imagine finding on a weapon that had seen a dozen difficult battles.

He had kept going for far longer than anyone with the stamina befitting his realm should have been able to endure, and if he was able to keep learning throughout the next few stages of the Selection of the Heavenly Masters, whatever those were, he might very well earn some kind of place within the Wu District. Most likely, it would not be anywhere near the position of a Heavenly Master, but they would be stupid to completely throw away someone like him just because he lost to a person who, while lacking the ability to split her mind in two, could still focus on something completely different and succeed with ease.

Her opponent did not have anything in particular to say to her, but he did not in appreciation to her feedback. It seemed like he was able to handle a loss well enough, which made her wish that there were more people like him in the world.

While he tried with great difficulty to pick up his sword and return to his previous spot in the Master’s Square, finding it challenging to even bend his legs without collapsing, she did so effortlessly, looking over to the five representatives of the Wu District, curious whether they’d have anything to comment. It took a few moments, but the second man, the one that had instructed her to take her turn in combat, eventually turned to her.

“You fought well, but trying to comprehend matters while you fight should be left for a different time. At the moment, you are engaging in a contest for a very highly sought-after position.”

“It’s a rare opportunity, and one I need to take in order to ensure my success at the end. I will try to not draw things out to the same extent in the future, though,” she said, shrugging as she took her previous position and folded her arms, keeping her blade in her left hand since it did not have the same physical sensations as her right hand, nor did it get tired from anything.

Even with her current physique, the right hand did not appreciate being forced to simply grip onto something for what might well be a number of hours, seeing as there were still a number of those that had yet to fight and that most of the strongest and fastest fighters were already done. She would need to stand around for quite a bit before it was over, and longer still depending on what the five of the Wu District had to say after the fact.

In the end, she stood by for quite a little while, four hours passing by and the sun beginning to set before all of the fights were complete, and the number of people on the street finally reduced to two thirds of who had been there at the beginning of the duels.

Obviously, there were those that lost and stayed, including the young talented man that Wei Yi had fought, but not all felt that they were going to be able to succeed in future stages with their current skills and training. To stay and simply be beaten, time and time again, wouldn’t be of any significant benefit to them, as learning from an opponent could only be done reasonably if they were within reach of one another’s abilities. Seeing someone too far above them wouldn’t lead to much more than envy.

“Now that you remain, you will have battled and learned. The Heavenly Sword must possess a higher understanding of the sword than merely how to swing it, and thus you shall be given two weeks of silent contemplation, after which we shall test what you have learned in further duels. As such, we would ask that if you have no interest in displaying more than superficial knowledge, you ought to depart at this very moment, and disturb our process no longer,” the woman from the five said to all the people remaining in the Master’s Square, releasing the array that had been subduing all of their power.

The four men turned and looked in the same direction together, pointing towards it in an obvious manner to all those present.

There weren’t many with sufficiently powerful spiritual perception, but the few that could see far enough were able to observe a number of sealed chambers that were quiet and empty, away from the sun, wind and all else that might distract one from contemplating their actions prior to this point, and attempting to improve on their skills and techniques in solitude.

On one hand, this was not particularly ideal for the Ascendant, as she was more interested in observing as many distinct battles and contemplating as many distinct movements as possible, but she was content with this so long as she was truly uninterrupted.

With the two weeks that seemed to be guaranteed according to the announcement of the Selection of the Heavenly Masters, she would have enough time to solidify her notions of the Weapon and Hand Dao and then create something that would, at least, pass for the Sword Dao in combat. The Wu District likely wasn’t expecting this kind of thing from any of their participants, but they would undoubtedly be pleased to accept someone who did master the Sword Dao to some extent as their Heavenly Sword. If they then saw that she had significant expertise in the Dao of Law, Planar Dao and so on, they would be more open to her becoming the Matriarch.

In a way, the presence of Wu Chao was also incredibly helpful to her. It ensured that she had a foe that she would easily be able to kill without regretting it for a single moment, and it meant that the next best candidate for Patriarch would not be lost in any kind of lethal confrontation. Perhaps it might even give her a chance to form a better relationship with them, allowing her to have a great deal of influence on the leader of the Wu District once she gave up the position.

For that reason, she accepted the delay that she had already anticipated, and followed the lead of the five, finding a quiet spot to meditate at.