V5C49: Concept of a Weapon

She had been looking for two things out of this battle – an effective attack against Wu Chao, and the development of her Weapon Dao, or the Sword Dao, or a Hand Dao. Any would do.

The latter was, as usual, difficult to obtain, but she had a great deal of hope for the former as one of the other squads from the Reclaimed Lands was clearly paying attention to him and staying back from the rest of the fighting. They were dressed even more abnormally than the one that threw the ball of flame, with several layers of strange metal plates arranged in odd manners, circulating energy around them, and their eyes were absent from their heads. Since they had only their spiritual perception to guide them, they moved slowly and carefully, their collective spiritual perception reaching out far enough to spy upon Wu Chao’s actions.

It took them some time and some quiet whispers that were unpleasant to listen to due to the profane dialect in which they spoke that almost radiated the same kind of energy one would expect from a forbidden skill, if their names weren’t quite different from their true nature. With her limited experience, it was hard to assess the exact element of significance in this instance, but she still recorded all of it, as she did with everything else in the area.

After the Great Family member killed a few more using his methods, most being in alignment with what she had seen so far from the other Great Family techniques, the strange figures finally stepped in and acted, two kneeling down, two others lowered themselves slightly, leaning upon the shoulders of their companions, and the other three put their hands upon those of their comrades, but they did not lower themselves to the same position, creating an unfathomable stack of figures that all faced Wu Chao and pointed their faces in his direction.

Their clothing revealed only the lower half of their faces, prompting one’s gaze to their dark lips as they opened, and a sound emerged from within. Where they previously spoke, now the sound could not be described by any words available to the Ascendant, if they were words at all.

Whatever one may describe the sound as, it surged from their mouths in a visible mass, the air trembling around the swirling mass and making it significantly more visible than a mostly transparent thing would be. It was hard for her to find any terms to describe it, but fortunately enough, even if she was seeking to figure out the origin Dao for it, she would not need the terms themselves, but only the meaning behind them.

That thing flew towards Wu Chao, who gave it a single glance and fired out two point beam swords towards the moving mass, completely failing to notice the sound associated with it, persisting within.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the edges that should have easily cut through any agglomeration of energy beneath the fifth realm failed to do. The collision only led to the swords slowing down, and any parts where the sword touched the mass suddenly began to melt. It was not akin to how one might imagine an ordinary sword, or any thing made of metal, to turn into liquid, lacking any heating, reddening, or anything of the sort. Instead, the blades made of planar energy just lost their cohesion and turned into an unseemly blob that passed through the mass and broke apart soon after.

‘This… I might be a big fan of the effects of this thing. My spiritual perception is slightly affected, but since the point beam blades are nearly nullified, then it could very well be a sign of them being able to target the very stabilisation of anchors…’

From what she could tell, the method by which the colourless mass was produced was not one that she would ever invoke, for it involved a great deal of physical harm and unnecessary mutilation to modify the way in which planar energy flowed through the body, following with a release of it through a resonant choir of ruined voices. This was not practical for her, and she had no desire to damage the bodies of others for something like this, when there was a far easier option.

Converting almost anything to a standard planar energy technique was feasible with either with an excessive calculation ability, or through an epiphany, both of which were long-term options, but she was most certainly going to keep this in mind. She simply couldn’t throw away the opportunity to have a technique to instantly weaken the attacks of the Greats, and, if it worked as it appeared to…

When the uncertain mass flew further, the Great Family member tried to evade, but his body was hardly as strong or fast as that of an ordinary warrior, and when he attempted to use the pressure from his anchors, it seemed to burst out in uncontrolled ways, shredding some of his robes. In the moment that he froze in amazement at the situation, the mass finally reached him, touching his flesh and, far more significantly, all of the anchors that existed outside of his body – in other words, all of them. It visibly changed then, inhuman tongue-like shapes manifesting from the surface and lapping at the anchors.

In that moment, the vast aura of the fifth realm combined with the thirty-nine anchors suddenly tremored. His body shook with it, and he could barely maintain his footing while all of the point beam blades he had sent out suddenly fell apart into a loose mass of raw planar energy.

All of a sudden, a few dozen opponents that should have fallen easily did not, and they were all free and ready to strike back in however much or little time they had available. A number of swords, axes, maces and strange implements that couldn’t quite be described as any of those usual categories, all headed straight for his unprotected body, and just two or three went for the illusory anchors around him, for they did not understand what they saw and sought only to hamper whatever it was that they were witnessing. Perhaps they didn’t even expect this to lead to any significant results, other than inconveniencing him, but the Ascendant knew better.

When they tried to hit him, a protective artefact activated and resisted the blows, leaving only faint scratches on his skin – enough to piss him off, nonetheless – but there was no such thing for his anchors.

In one go, two of his vile anchors were shattered, and the anchor energy within fell out into the world, readily being grabbed up by Wei Yi without anyone noticing. Wu Chao had a chance of observing such a thing in his normal state, provided that the Greats were as aware of otherworldly demons as an early encounter would suggest, but now he could barely move or exert any form of his energy.

However, that disturbance also affected the unclear mass, shaking off the strange tongues that extended from within, and with a rush of clear killing intent, numerous point beam blades condensed in a moment and pierced through all those that surrounded him. The colourless mass attempted to grasp onto them once more, but with a single surge of the anchors’ influence, it was blasted apart, leaving Wu Chao free to do as he wished.

‘That does make a great deal of sense, I suppose. If the mass is made to counter a particular arrangement of anchors and to dull their influence, it would instantly become less effective when the arrangement of anchors was changed,’ the Ascendant assessed quickly, ‘Had it been omnipotent, then there is no chance that they wouldn’t have already conquered Yi City with this kind of ability. It is easy to account for once it is known, but it is least effective against those who rely the least upon planar anchors themselves. Only the Greats would be in significant danger, and it is precisely them who should be removed as swiftly as possible… Had they waged war, we might have gotten rid of the hold of the Greats earlier.’

She was not too fond of the fact that this would lead to the legacy of Kong Shi Meng being ruined in all the ways that she did not appreciate, as she did have some attachment to Yi City as a whole, but perhaps a general weakening of the Greats would have allowed the other districts to break free.

It was not how things had gone, and their intervention was not necessary now, so she didn’t bother coming over to them to mentioning it. At this moment, they were just invaders and threats to the Wu District, so they would be forced back or killed, depending on their own attitude. She could let them retreat if they so wished, but something told her that they were not just willing to fight to the death, but that whatever method she came up with would not give them much of a chance to decide one way or the other.

After all of this observation – at least ten minutes of constant fighting between a few thousand opponents now – she had not yet attained any stage in her Dao, but she felt that she was getting close. There was something on the edge of her consciousness, and with just a little more, she could create a technique to further boost that attainment into an overwhelming force.

Then, when she did reach Full Success, on her own or through the heavens, that technique would be amplified, and it could be practical for any kind of conflict.

‘Since I am going for the position of a Heavenly Sword, I ought to pursue something sword edge-related… but to limit myself to a field I have limited comprehension in would be rather silly. As such, Edge Replication… the recreation of the power of any edged weapon, disguised as whatever suits me best at that moment,’ she nodded to herself, the first bit of movement since her silent reply to the Great Wu Family member a few minutes back.

“Ascendant, you must act soon,” a voice came from behind her, straight from the mouth of the fourth man that she had seen back at the Wu District, “As we had told you before, simply observing is not right for an aspiring Heavenly Sword.”

“I’m learning and watching. Once I’m done, I can take care of things quickly. Incidentally, I don’t think that any of you have told your names to any of us. Isn’t that a little rude when you seem to know both me and Wu Chao, and feel compelled to refer to us by those names?” the Ascendant asked back, not bothering to look behind herself.

“You would find little interest in those. I am Wu Wu.”

“I had counted you lot in my head, but I didn’t expect such a coincidence,” Wei Yi muttered, “You are disrupting me, by the way. Are you fine with losing more of your Wu District’s people, or do you just want that asshole dead as much as I do?”

“There is nothing for me to say on this topic. Act soon, or else you will lose your chance.”

There was no need to explain any further, but she wasn’t going to stand back for too long. After a short while, Wu Chao would either flee or defeat too many of the forces from the Reclaimed Lands for her to make any kind of significant impact. For the moment, it looked like it would be the former, as the loss of anchors led to him losing his edge and his opponents had clearly realised this. Provided that he wasn’t some complete moron, he would get out of there before more anchors were damaged.

After a while, he began to do exactly that, and she took a step forward and vanished from the spot. In an instant, she manifested far closer to the battlefield, standing before a number of soldiers from the Reclaimed Lands with her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow held out ahead of her, palm facing toward her eyes, a moment of thought delaying her further.

‘No, this time the Arm is not going to be of use. It does not align with my concept of a Weapon… It is, instead, a living part of my body, a concentration of hatred and law, the true purpose of which is to complete me and empower me…’ her thoughts had been mostly unbidden, but when she had begun to think on the topic, she just continued, ‘In fact, that is a significant distinction. Armour can be weaponry too, as can planar techniques, but we do not see them in the same way. The fourth realm of killing will, and the two paths that form it, both create weapons that are different from the constructs one might create with the energy prior to reaching the fourth realm…

‘Yes, the fifth realm does not provide a weapon, even though the armour can very much help with attacking someone… A weapon, to be that and not a tool, or armour, or some utility, needs to be used for attack first and foremost. A sword, convenient as it may be to block blows with it, will be damaged quickly by repeated glancing strikes, and most are too narrow to act as decent shields. A spear, although allowing for greater freedom in positioning, is a long length of material with a pointed end. Generally, it has many of the same flaws, and is not a useful shield unless that is all that one has to protect themselves with… My gauntlets have been used for protection, and they are certainly effective in that regard…’

The smoke before her broke apart and shifted back to her side, while she raised her right hand and looked at the claws atop her fingers.

‘Despite that, they are weapons. Whatever other use I have found for them, these are truly weapons intended for the defeat of the Greats and all others that think that they can weaken and twist this world as if they are the ones who have any right or reason to lead…’ she looked up and at her enemies, “If what I wield is a weapon, then I can most certainly cut the lot of you apart. I’ll get to the other one afterwards.”

Her Arm suddenly broke apart and allowed the plentiful crimson within to surge out and surround her, a great deal settling upon the tips of her claws. It quickly reformed with further killing intent pouring out of her body, but all of the crimson that had accumulated was sent flying with a single slash.

There weren’t only five lines of intent, but hundreds and thousands, and all of them moved with such speed that none of the targets had even the faintest intent that they were being targeted.

In one breath, the ground was torn asunder and numerous bodies were severed into two, a fine cut being the only damage dealt to all of them. Swords were split, shields were cut apart, and any armour that attempted to stand in the way of her killing intent was cleaved as easily as a hot knife might go through air. At the same time, a circle formed within both of her irises.

Before her, the entire world gained yet another dimension of depth, with everything that matched her comprehension of a weapon being brought to her attention, all things about them being made clear within a glance. Combining with the vision states of her Dao of Law, Ire Dao, the embedded understanding of the Sword Dao, Absolute Dao, Planar Dao and the Earth Dao, she felt for just a moment that the vision states were able to provide a vague semblance of the whole picture, even if she still missed such a great list of concepts and ideas.

Aside from just making her all the more interested in obtaining more Dao and gaining their vision states, she was also all the more aware of the benefits that a true Dao vision state would grant her. For the moment, she was relying on the knowledge of the heavens.

What if she could view all information? Everything that was available to look at, not just the things that the heavens learned. There was so much that was absent from her current vision states, and so much that she knew was out there, so if she gained the opportunity to obtain it… she was almost certain that she would, even with an extreme price. So long as she could then use it to correct whatever it cost her, there would be no loss.

Of course, if there was such an opportunity, there is no way that any mortal or even the heavens themselves would ever be too cowardly to attempt it. There had to be far more difficulty to obtaining such a thing than simply passing some obvious challenge. Understanding and learning were essential, clearly, and she would study everything including the Dao of Law until the first stage of the true Dao was gained. It might take a dozen years, or a hundred, or many millions if she was particularly unlucky, but she would go on for so long as she lived, and she could live for quite a while. At the ninth realm, which she believes she would reach, would guarantee her one million, six hundred and thirty-eight thousand, and four hundred years of life for herself.

From there, she was nearly certain that one of her other cultivation paths, alongside the development of her Dao, there would be a way to extend that further. The Dao of Law was clearly the most suitable path to travel, simply due to it aligning closely with the limitations of lifespan in the first place, but perhaps some other paths would also give her some success if she approached the situation slightly differently. She could always slow time around herself and try to duplicate her mind outside of that temporal lock, giving her more time to think without exhausting lifespan, or she could even go the same route as Yi Shi Ming, so long as she put a little more thought into the plan than her and her son.

A cry in an unfamiliar dialect of the language of the Planar Continents interrupted her, “Kill her! Kill that one, and we will have success!”

Her head snapped to the side, locking eyes with the one that had spoken. All of her vision states broke him apart into numerous factors, and she quickly collated all of the information she could obtain from him without even using her spiritual perception to obtain that information.

The peak of the sixth realm, four daggers hidden in his clothes, one axe on his back, gauntlets with spikes on the knuckles to facilitate stronger punches. Earth-adherent technique, a ring with a fire-type inscription, a particular force targeting the water element that sought the level of the Absolute while remaining far from it. He had a great deal of anger towards powerful authorities, although the Ire was dampened by his own identity, meaning that it could not showcase its full power.

Her spiritual perception might allow her to gain more, but she held back and removed it from around him, putting away whatever readings it had already attained on a distant shelf in her mind.

One of the best ways to further her own usage of the Dao was to rely on it as much as possible, forcefully bringing out the flaws and strengths alike to recognise and resolve the former while using the latter to their utmost.

“Good luck with that,” she replied back to him, transmitting her voice via spiritual will so that it would reach that man first of all. At once, she dashed forth, the crimson around her cutting into the ground and laving numerous thin cuts upon the frost-covered dirt, while many other strands shot out and severed the soldiers that attempted to get to her.

The leader on the opposite side did not respond to her, only removing the axe from his back and roaring, the very earth around him trembling as his aura was forcefully released from within him. Grey stone-like masses of planar energy formed around the head of the axe, creating a second layer atop the metal that was sharper and tougher, at least on first glance. It most certainly empowered the aura of a Weapon from it, which was all that she needed to know to be sure that this wouldn’t be entirely worthless and purely for the visual.

She reached into the air on one of her steps and willed some of the loose killing intent to form into an element that she rarely made use of – the blade of the Searing Torch realm. It was a powerful and malleable weapon, despite what the cultivators of the Crimson Side had presumed due to their lacking experience with realms above the third. They probably should have focused on the name of the realm instead, as it was highly fitting for the true nature of the killing intent realm that she now saw through the vision state of her Dao. Rather than a simple weapon, it was a blinding torch of one’s power to the outside world.

In this case, she only needed to shape it to her will, to let it shine boldly, so that all may see her power even if night fell upon the world.

A great surge of crimson flame burst out of her right hand, spreading out into the shape of a greatsword that had once come from the House of Gold. The blade itself was solid and stable, nothing alike to the guard of the sword, which burned and crackled with energy that greatly resembled her Obliteration energy. All of it together blazed gloriously and wondrously, condensing within itself a great quantity of her comprehension that blinded all that tried to look upon them.

Then, in a flash, she appeared beside her foe, slashing down at the man without regard for his weapon.

“You oppose Long Song Lao, Great Crusher of the Reclaimed Lands, and you will prove my superiority to these cowards!” he proclaimed, it being rather unclear whether he was referring to his own forces or to those that he was fighting with.

Either way, when confronted with her incoming sword, he naturally used his axe and swung it at the edge, clearly wishing to shatter what he must have imagined to be a planar construct.

He moved as quickly as he could, but Wei Yi had limited herself to what was roughly his speed with the intention of completing her Edge Replication while she had the perfect opportunity to do so. Since her enemy was capable and relatively powerful, she would be able to see how another person made use of all of the weapons that they had, learn from their errors, and thus improve her Weapon Dao in the process.

Crimson blade and stone collided, and it was the stone that shattered, leaving the blade to collide with the head of the axe, the two clashing and parting, just like the two of them. The collision shot out numerous sharp strands of killing intent that had the shape of the sharpest of edges, cutting deeper into the ground and obliterating the rest of the soldiers that had not yet managed to get out of the area, or chose not to do so. They stood opposite one another for just a moment before the very earth suddenly cracked and shattered, cracking and collapsing in a violent phenomenon that sent all of them falling into an unseen cave that had been not far beneath them.

They all fell for two dozen metres, landing with varying levels of grace on the loose dirt and stones that had ended up beneath them.

Obviously, the experts like the Ascendant and Long Song Lao were able to use their methods to land safely regardless of their own talents and experiences in such things, and the latter was not going to waste the opportunity to rush forth and strike her while she might be disoriented. What he must have missed was how every single rock and piece of hardened earth beneath his feet was clearly sliced apart by the same energy that she was using, and that there would have been no such collapse without deliberate action on the part of one that was all too familiar with the earth around her.

He learnt his mistake the moment that he stepped onto the edge of one of the earthen chunks. It seemed like any other – and in the case of this earthen pit, it certainly was – but when he touched the edge, his entire foot felt as if it was cut apart, a thin line of blood appearing on the bottom of his foot and beginning to soak into his shoe.

Most of the damage was only in his mind, with his body itself enduring only a slightly annoying cut, but one irritating fact about it was that the cut wouldn’t recover no matter how much energy he directed towards it, nor did any of the techniques he attempted to use upon it have any effectiveness. This forced him to pause his rush and stabilise his standing, resulting in yet another shallow cut and incredibly deep feeling of injury and pain as he made the mistake of stepping just a little too far with the other foot, leading to a single cut on both of them. After shifting his standing, he glared at her and brought back the layer of stone upon his axe.

“What is your name, coward?”

“Most of the cowards seem to have fallen unconscious or suffered grievous injuries, so I don’t think you’ll get a reply.”

“I was asking for you name!”

“Oh, it’s Wei Yi. Nice to meet you, Long Song Lao.”

“Your methods are cheap and cowardly, Wei Yi! Face me properly, if you dare, or else I shall destroy you without any regard for your honour!” the man proclaimed loudly, thrusting his axe towards her, “What say you?”

“Nah.”

He did not speak in reply, only yelling loudly and angrily as he leapt forth and bypassed the bladed edges of the earth beneath him. The axe was raised and his arm was ready to fall upon her.

All she did was raise the Arm and, with a notable amount of difficulty caused by her claws, she clicked her fingers, prompting a mass of earth to burst out of the upper layer of debris and head straight for the figure of Long Song Lao. Although the spikes seemed almost random in appearance, size and overall deadliness, they were all sharp and protruding in ways much alike to the point of a blade. Given the degree of damage dealt to the mind by random edges of the dirt, this was a clear danger to him.

Thus, the man switched his plan of attack, grasped onto the handle of the axe with both hands, and slammed it down, infusing his vast quantity of energy into the axe head and letting it surge out of the edge, exploding out onto the spiked terrain.

At the same time, a ring on his finger lit up with flames. A mass of blue flickered out, and a ball of flame the size of a small house suddenly formed in the air, but a few metres above the Ascendant. Just like the Fire Storms of the previous users of the technique, it fell swiftly the instant that it was ready, and she was given no choice but to face the incoming mass of flame in order to prevent her robes from being slightly singed. That would be the only damage that could be dealt to her due to her physiques, among other cultivation paths that she had chosen to pursue.

‘This… I suppose it could be called a weapon by my definition. It would be shit as a defensive measure, certainly, as the only defensive property is that it may dissuade attacks due to the potential threat.’

Since that was the case, then she raised her right hand with her index finger held out, pointed towards the ball of blue flame. It did not appear to move, tremble or shake, naturally making the one that had manifested it very pleased as he landed safely again and watched how she had proceeded. That joy changed swiftly as something far worse occurred.

The blue mass suddenly distorted, with a line in the middle rushing down and towards him, while the rest of the flames contorted to follow, quickly forming a sword out of the flames. It moved with an even greater speed than it had in the form of a ball, and from a single glance at the edge, he could feel it cutting into him, making it very blatant that the moment it did hit him, it could very well be significantly more dangerous than his technique, invoked from the artefact on his finger, was meant to have been.

For some reason that he couldn’t quite identify, he glanced at that finger, finding that it was absent. Instead, the glint of blue was being held between two of the Ascendant’s fingers, her two pointed claws keeping it in place.

“Huh. I thought that by making the cause of this the loss of your finger, you would lose it as well…”

Only a moment after she said that, a vast quantity of blood suddenly splashed onto his face and the ground. Some of it seemed to fall onto an invisible edge above the edges of the shattered terrain beneath him, being cut apart into finer splashes of crimson, but it could only last for a little while before the blue flames crashed down upon him and evaporated not only that, but him as well.