V5C52: Rite of Progression

Perhaps the only two that weren’t confused right now were the Ascendant and the fifth man from the oddly named group, for even the other four were rather lost, not to mention the other participants in the Selection of Heavenly Masters, and the Heavenly Spear, Heavenly Axe, Heavenly Mace, Heavenly Dagger and Heavenly Bow. All of them came promptly and without any questions, but once they saw the scene of an unfamiliar woman standing by a decapitated body, surrounded by a whole bunch of other fighters that looked as lost as they were, the number of questions certainly rose quite a bit. They turned to Wu Wu for answers.

“What is happening? The Selection of the Heavenly Masters doesn’t usually end in death, does it?” the Heavenly Spear asked, a short woman with a spear on her back, an eyepatch over the left, empty eye socket, and a length of voluminous hair tied into a full ponytail.

“My one hadn’t, but there were quite a few chopped trees,” replied the Heavenly Axe, a tall and very muscular man who had two axes on his belt, both simple enough in appearance but well-polished and sharpened, ready for use. He had his arms crossed, his head slightly raised as to look down at everything around him.

“There were many deaths during the Selection of the Heavenly Mace. Injuries from blunt weapons can be difficult to heal,” stated the Heavenly Mace, a slimmer man with an exaggeratedly ornate mace on his side, looking like it was more of an absurd toy than any kind of actual weapon.

The Heavenly Dagger glanced at the Heavenly Mace and took a silent step away while he walked, a hand resting right by the dagger on his back, ready to be used at any time.

“Since we were all called here for some reason, I can only assume that this is our new Heavenly Sword?” the woman that was the Heavenly Bow asked, a bow and quiver on her back and short black hair on her head, clearly trimmed in such a manner that it would have no chance of affecting her while she was attempting to loose an arrow accurately. Out of the whole lot, she appeared to be the most practical in terms of appearance, but that meant little since the nature of planar energy allowed for a great variety of unusual abilities and natures.

Given that the Heavenly Bow was the closest to the mark, Wu Wu turned to her in order to reply.

“Wei Yi has become the Heavenly Sword after defeating the final challenger, a member of the Great Wu Family by the name of Wu Chao. He had attempted to slay her with planar energy and sent a message that went against our rules when he failed, so she killed him as agreed prior to this,” he explained, answering as many questions as were raised, “Now, our Heavenly Sword wishes to compete for the position of Heavenly Weapon, and that of Matriarch at the same time.”

“She wants to do what?” the Heavenly Axe exclaimed, “Is that not a little too early for someone who is only in the sixth realm, and has just taken the position?”

“Be careful when you say ‘only’, as you will underestimate me and just lose more quickly,” Wei Yi said before anyone else could speak, “I had studied your rules, and while this is certainly extremely unconventional, there appears to be nothing that prohibits such an action. Now, can we get on with this?”

“What’s the rush, exactly?” the Heavenly Spear said.

“Wu Chao, the Leech, sent a message to his fellow Leeches over at Testament, so this district might very well be attacked by at least one of their first generation, seventh realm experts. I would rather prevent that, and so I would like to get straight to whatever the challenge is for becoming a Matriarch.”

“…” the Heavenly Masters looked at one another as they considered her words. The first to speak was the Heavenly Dagger, who looked at Wu Wu with a raised eyebrow, “If we’re going along with this, then I have to assume that we wish to get things done as quickly as we possibly can, so… Wei Yi, that’s your name, right? I can see some faint marks in your irises, hard as it is to see due to the colour of your eyes… have you managed to attain the vision state of a Dao?”

“If all that you need is a demonstration of Dao, then I can provide not only the Sword Dao, but the Weapon Dao to you. Would that be enough for the lot of you?”

“A Weapon Dao would indeed be enough. Demonstrate it, now,” the Heavenly Mace said.

She did not appreciate his words and tone, but if it was able to get things done quickly, then she would not complain yet. Once she was Matriarch, it would be incredibly easy to make any kind of demand of the man if she was tempted to do so in the future.

Instead of that, she raised her right hand and, after a brief pause, she clicked her fingers with no other outward action. She shut her eyes, quickly racing through a million thoughts within her head in order to provide a demonstration of her abilities in a fashion that could not possibly be denied, even if one really wished to do so.

At first, there was nothing obvious, but the Heavenly Masters frowned as they felt a vast pulse of something that could be described as neither energy nor aura. It was more fundamental and inhuman, something that was not usually harnessed by the mortal men and women of the Planar Continents. They did not know this, but it was the power of Law being driven with the boundless killing intent of her Arm, and it stimulated the power of the Weapon Dao alongside the natural Laws of reality to will them into her control.

After that uncertain pause, every single sword in the hands and on the belts of the surrounding participants in the Selection of the Heavenly Sword rose out of their grips, floating into the air and righting themselves as if they were being held by invisible figures unseen by all.

The weapons of the Heavenly Masters were also attempting to get away from them, but they did not let go and Wei Yi did not force them to, not just yet.

Instead, the moment that every sword in the area shifted into a position that might well be used in combat, they rushed towards her with great speed, bobbing in the hands of their invisible users – the manifestations of the Law of Weapons, the combination of her knowledge of techniques being put into the hands of the world to do with them as it would if it wished to strike her down.

Seconds from that exact thing happening, countless phantoms of crimson and smoke manifested from the air and met the incoming swords with singular blows that repelled them in one go, right before breaking into naught and being replaced by other phantoms. They blocked and parried strikes, pushing back the floating blades for a second. Scattering and reforming with new quantities of killing intent each time, the phantoms slowly blended into an unceasing whole, resulting in what looked like a battle between two forces consisting of floating blades and crimson shades.

Neither side used planar energy techniques, for one could not and the other would not employ the killing intent equivalent, but the battle was entrancing nonetheless. In one minute, it seemed to convey a vast sea of knowledge to those who looked and saw the insights hidden in each strike, far surpassing what might be learned from a decade of individual combat and training. The simple range of insights alone led to that.

When the Heavenly Masters took this in, they let their weapons join the simulated battle as well, causing a major change. The Ascendant did not simply get more sword-wielding crimson phantoms to battle against the dagger, mace, bow, axe and spear, but instead manifested the appropriate weapons to confront them with. A dagger, mace, axe and spear could fight against one another easily enough without further contributions from her, given that they were all melee weapons and perfectly equipped to block, counter, parry and generally trade blows with wielders of similar weapons, but a bow was a ranged weapon that used arrows and had no use in close combat without particularly exceptional and unusual archery methods.

Instead, she made use of the nature of the weapon to do with it differently than with the others, providing arrows made of cosmic light to the real thing and crimson strands of light for the phantoms. They were also not made to fight one another, but instead supported the fights between the other four.

Each arrow fired burst and exploded in a spectacular yet harmless fashion, thus forcing the figures on either side to perform additional actions to evade them, and the shots from the bow of the Heavenly Bow landed near the mass of other crimson figures, forcing them to evade as well. This altered the battle overall, and when a dozen additional combatants manifested from the air, it only seemed natural for the battle to expand, to the point that none questioned why the figures made of subdued silver were as they were, and how exactly they were made.

Just like the soldiers of killing intent and spiritual will once fought within her mental domain, doing so endlessly and fruitlessly, so did the silver phantoms supplement the battle now, their actions being just as useless as her influence permitted her to perfectly respond to every single strike and balance out the situation without flaws.

Whereas only the sword wielders in the audience were able to truly appreciate the initial skirmish, now all were able to marvel and take in the fighting, learning from it as various situations they had only imagined in their heads played out. They were so engrossed that, as the battle grew and more figures appeared, wielding other types of equipment and being matched with all kinds of other combat styles, it seemed perfectly natural that they were consumed by a vortex of silver and crimson, as if they were brought to another world, another reality where this was all that existed, and where this kind of conflict was eternal.

Once all at the Selection had been brought into this boundless vortex, Wei Yi saw no true reason to push it even further. Her range of spiritual perception and energy was immense and barely sufficient to cover the district, so that was what she did, spreading out the battle to the entirety of the Wu District.

Everyone that had been standing around without much knowledge of the situation in the Master’s Square suddenly found themselves surrounded by fighters in the middle of an overwhelming battle. Silver on crimson, soft white on shadow, formless and transient while being so solid and powerful that they almost appeared to be an invading force from some other nation or district. Whether the observer was without a cultivation or in the fifth and sixth realms, they all found themselves glued to the astonishing visuals before them, some comprehending it, others simply marvelling at the sight.

Normally, something this absurd would catch the attention of forces that she did not wish to alert, but now that the Greats were likely to be coming after her, the Ascendant saw no reason to hold back. Provided that she could go far enough with this storm, this Domain of Weapons, a densely concentrated region full of the principles of her Dao, she would become Matriarch and move on swiftly.

‘My Planar Dao is at Full Success, so I can also bring that in, and instead of simple weaponised combat, I can introduce some combat techniques… and that Dao of the Heavens could work, provided that I am able to use it in a way that I imagine something by that name being used…’ she thought to that enigmatic Dao in the screen of the Truth of the Universe, which had not been of use back in the illusory realm of Primordial Earth, and attempted to invoke the small accomplishment that she had within it via the Dao of Law, ‘The heavens preside over a world, so if I can temporarily manifest the boundaries of a world, to make this place mine for just a moment, I could grant all of these entities a semblance of life…’

What this could bring her hardly needed to be explained. One major issue with her current power was that it was limited to herself and a few kilometres in any direction, which was not sufficient when dealing with numerous opposing forces, armies, and a far larger number of powerful individuals than just her lone self. Having an army that could exist within the expanded range of her spiritual perception near the spatial stabilisation points would solve that right away.

Furthermore, if she could claim a quantity of power that was thought to belong to the heavens, then her aspirations of removing them from their current position and taking over to impose her Law and aspire for Justice would be far less difficult.

After how often her random attempts at manifesting her various ideas into reality worked out without any major incidents, she had assumed that something like this would also be sufficiently easy to manage. By using the standard activation method via the Dao of Law, she attempted to manifest the abilities of the Dao of the Heavens and place it within the Domain that she had created, to make it an independent place where her words and whims could, for just the briefest of moments, truly become Law. It should have needed little more than that in order to work.

Instead, she felt everything within her body crumble and collapse, bursting into a crimson cloud that escaped through her mouth, a significant quantity of blood splashing onto her gauntlet as she attempted to minimize the amount that escaped. Her Arm scattered into an incomprehensible cloud, barely residing anywhere near her, and all of the wonderful phantoms scattered in an instant.

All attention turned to her as she coughed up more blood, some dripping from her gauntlet onto the ground while she desperately recovered her energy and reformed the inside of her body, cancelling her vain attempts to use something that was clearly far beyond her.

Only after the vital parts of her body were reconstructed was she even able to perceive her surroundings properly, and comprehend that the Heavenly Masters had naturally gotten closer to her, having reclaimed their weapons before they could fall to the ground without the support of her energy. Their expressions were a mix of curiosity and worry, although it was also clear that they had some suspicion that she had overworked herself by manifesting such a large Domain of Dao, not that they knew of the terms she had invented.

“A-Apologies…” she said, faintly aware that her voice did not sound anything like it usually did, “I tried to go further, and it did not go well…”

“Your voice-”

“I had… ahem,” she coughed as she had finally rebuilt her vocal chords properly, “I had made use of my body in order to be able to use Dao more effectively, and it usually just shreds a part of my heart or a lung, but this time it decided to pulverise everything but my bones. Those are the toughest thing in my body, aside from my hair, if that counts.”

She took the moment to also refocus her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, forcing it to return to a stable state now that all of her energy wasn’t being used to keep her body from collapsing into itself and looking rather terrible.

“… How is hair ever tougher than another part of your body?”

“Even without cultivation, hair can be really resilient. With cultivation and refinement, as well as the preference for it being long, it is possible to go far beyond just that,” Wei Yi replied, using her bloodline power to reabsorb her cosmic blood and prevent it from staining the ground – or burning through it, as it appeared to be attempting to do, “Anyway, putting this failed attempt aside, I could repeat my previous performance if you really want me to, but I would rather not do so if that was enough for the lot of you.”

“What is happening here? Who had created those phantoms from a moment ago?” before there was a reply, another series of figures emerged, these ones having one hand covered by a thick glove while the other was obviously trained and extremely experienced in the usage of a single type of hand technique each, “Was it you, red-haired woman?”

“My name is Wei Yi, and I was attempting to apply for the position of Matriarch. Are you opposed?”

“… What?”

In the end, all of the Heavenly Masters in the district gathered at the spot and learned about the origin of the phantoms that had shocked them all, and so they were forced to come to a single simple yet shocking conclusion – if there was to be a Matriarch or Patriarch in the district, she was most suitable.

“This method of acquiring your position is… unconventional, to say the least. At a later time-”

“Honestly, I don’t want to keep the position for much longer than a few years, at most. If you have heard of me before, you might know that my goals are to take the entirety of Yi City from the grip of the Great Leeches, at which point having control of a district with so little relation to me would not be beneficial,” Wei Yi explained to silence their concerns, “Wu Liang seemed decent enough at the combat side of things, so if you would spend some time training him or a replacement that you feel is more suitable, then they can take over the moment that there is no more necessity for this position.”

“Your words might not be taken too kindly by all,” Wu Wu said, preventing the Heavenly Masters from speaking, “Nonetheless, we must proceed with appropriate rituals. There is a process to becoming Matriarch-”

“We don’t have time for it, nor is it a good idea to throw my name and appearance out to everyone that doesn’t already have it. For all I know, the Greats do not have some details about me, but any kind of public and lengthy ceremony will ensure that they get it all significantly earlier than they need to. Once I have reconnected to my territories, then we can consider this when we have time.”

The Heavenly Spear sighed, “Perhaps that’s for the best, if you wish to pass along your position…”

She didn’t sound too pleased, and the other Heavenly Masters looked rather discontent with her decision, but she didn’t have the option of doing anything different even if she wanted nothing more than to satisfy their wishes. As such, she looked to Wu Wu and waited for him to continue.

“I suppose that you would instead ask for the treasures of the district and the spatial stabilisation point, then?” he said.

“That would be very much preferable. There is something that needs to be done, and it will be best achieved with plentiful resources and items of value. I would be polite and kindly request them, but since I am being given the position of Matriarch, I will take everything that might be of use to me, and return it the moment that your treasury is a safer and more easily accessible place for them,” Wei Yi replied, “Bring me to your treasury!”

“That has to be too much-”

“You are within your right as Matriarch to do with the district’s resources as you wish. Please, follow me,” Wu Wu ignored the interruption from a Heavenly Master and turned in the direction of the Ancestral Hall, leading her to it without any complaint.

With the notably odd behaviour that he had previously displayed, at least in comparison to his fellows that seemed to practise the same technique, be in the same realm, and almost exist alongside one another at all times, she chose to follow him without hesitation. The Heavenly Masters were clearly unaware of whatever it was that he knew, and if he did not speak out right there and then, then he would not do so if she pressed him, or she might just harm herself in the process if he did. As he was the only one to go to the Ancestral Hall, she waited until they began to descend into it to speak.

“So, are you going to explain what you know that the others do not?”

“If you refer to the five of us, then all that is different is that I am the oldest, and part of the longest chain. All five have received knowledge and direct memories from our predecessors, but only my chain had been able to persist since a time near to the life of the Master of Yi City. I had seen, through eyes that are not my own, far more than they had, and I understand that the adherence to standard practises are only useful when those practises themselves will help us. At the moment, this is not the case.”

“You understand the issue of the Great Leeches far more so than they do, then. What happened with the other four chains?”

“One way or another, they were cut short before the accumulated memories could be passed on. This is highly unfortunate, of course, but we went on and found new and capable warriors to take on the positions. I had been fifth, and fifth I still am, for so long as there is a Wu District to protect.”

He stopped before a small door that looked to be made of wood, then tapped it several times. On a single glance, there seemed to be no particular logic or reason to the taps, but with each one the door seemed to shimmer just a little, and the last tap caused it to twist and change, growing rapidly until it was the size of a gateway, and the one door changed to two, taking up the entirety of the space on the wall between the doors on either side of it. Once the illusion vanished, all of the aura from the contents within also began to seep out, and that alone was highly encouraging.

The Ascendant had been able to sense something about the wooden door, and had guessed it would be of importance once Wu Wu stopped beside it, but the entirety of illusion still evaded her, for now.

‘In the future, once I have my own version of divine sense, and especially if that is able to contain my Absolute Soul’s aura, I should have no trouble seeing through things like this,’ she thought while waiting for these large doors to be opened, “Then, you truly have no problems with me taking everything I want from this place?”

“Obviously, you ought to have some sense. However, if that was something that you lacked significantly, you would not be in the position that you are currently in, nor would your power be as it is. Your method of storage would not benefit from random things filling it to the brim.”

She shrugged while stepping inside, “You’re not wrong, but I happen to have a rather major smithing project lined up for my visit to the Ze District. It will cost a great deal, and you may not be prepared for that… then again, neither am I, so I will do exactly as I had said and grab up everything that might even come close to being beneficial at that point, and I will certainly not spare all of those planar stones. I have a great use for them in a few days.”

“Good to know. What will you give in return?”

“Did you not say that I could do as I liked, within reason?” Wei Yi asked, raising an eyebrow at his question.

“You would not simply leave this place with naught, would you? As the Ascendant, your aim is to revitalise Yi City and to return the Planar Continents to new heights, so how could you possibly bring a district to poverty and only provide a few glimpses of Dao to the few that were in the right state of mind to comprehend them?”

“… How much have you actually learned about me?”

“As much as was necessary to side with you in most situations. My question was only meant to push the conversation along, not as a demand.”

“And yet, you’re neither right nor wrong. On one hand, I shall not give you anything this very moment. I need everything I can get for the reforging of a good sword I once used, so if I did leave anything, I would be returning for it in a day or two and thus wasting my time, and that of everyone relying on my speed,” Wei Yi explained, “On the other, the moment that the spatial stabilisation point is linked with every node that I control up north, I will be able to provide you with trade, resources, knowledge and techniques with preferential treatment to make up for that, and you can receive my forces in order to compensate for the lack of troops in any future conflict.”

“Your spatial realm is able to link to so many places at once? It is rather impressive, but even with whatever links you rely upon, a spatial realm will inevitably reach a limit,” Wu Wu suddenly explained, “Have you any spatial metal?”

“I don’t even know what it looks like.”

“Then it could be difficult to manage a rapid expansion of connections to your spatial realm. We have no spatial metal, nor do we know where to find it, but I can advise you on the typical appearance of spatial metal. The colour is described differently each time it is mentioned in historical descriptions, and my chain had seen five different shades in person, so you cannot rely on that alone. In a raw form, it will be akin to crystal, but if it has a shape without being refined, it may appear to be rather simple and unremarkable.

“However, regardless of appearance, spatial metal cannot be destroyed by ordinary means, and will endure all attacks from the fifth realm and below, while those at a higher level are unlikely to permanently damage anything, with all damage recovering after some time. As such, separating pieces of spatial metal from one another is typically challenging,” the man explained, “When it is in the form of an ingot, as it usually is for any form of crafting, it will be bright and celestial, a mixture of silver, cyan, and the faint reflection of the stars when viewed from any angle. At that point, you cannot possibly fail to recognise it, so you ought to take it for yourself if there is an opportunity. With it, a spatial spirit could advise you on the uses for it far better than I could.”

While he talked, Wei Yi had snapped up everything that she was interested in within the treasury, leaving it almost barren of goods. She left quite a few treasures, since she did not need them on hand to memorise their internal structure and recreate them if she ever wished to do so.

She did pause when she heard his description of the raw forms of spatial metal, but did not allow this to slow herself too greatly and finished her pillaging without further delay.

“Tough, unremarkable… Right. I will take note of that. Now, spatial stabilisation node, please. Oh, and that shard that you had made use of – I might have a good use for it, so let me take that as well. If it proves to be less effective than I want it to be, I’ll bring it back within a week or two, provided that I am able to.”

He nodded and complied immediately.