V5C61: State of the Dimensional Domain

In the end, although she enjoyed her time with them, and they certainly enjoyed their time with her, she still had other matters to take care of. She passed on the techniques she had invented in the forms of killing will tomes, then, as the sun rose over the Planar Continents, she headed to her next destination.

It was not within the districts, Paragon or the Kong Prison Realm, but it was within the range of the spatial stabilisation nodes, so she could get there easily enough without needing to make use of any movement methods or skills. What greeted her was surprising, although it was not a particularly unpleasant surprise, for the development of an area and the large number of people that now lived there was in no way a negative change. Given the number of otherworldly demons that seemed to exist in the world, it was only natural that once they had a place to congregate, they would do so.

After she had fought with the Greats once more, that growth must have been boosted quite significantly, for she now saw numerous residences, roads, and people roaming them.

Most of them looked like the native populace of the Planar Continents, with a few being an exception to that, but their fashion and general mannerisms, as well as average cultivation level, clearly differed significantly. There were a few in the higher realms of cultivation – meaning the third and fourth, not the seventh and above as Wei Yi might usually mean by the phrase – but they were in the clear minority in comparison to those in the second and first.

None were lacking in cultivation entirely, and all had a clear trace of an otherworldly gift within their body, or on it in the case of those items that functioned more like artefacts than innate abilities. Presumably, the influence of the azure lights and the natural tendency towards curiosity present within all people she had encountered so far meant that all had either begun their journey of cultivation before coming here, or had simply been placed into the world or even within the body of another who had already done this before them, and would have thus had no options to be in any other state unless they wished to scatter their cultivation willingly and deliberately.

Their clothing had originated from Fu Zan and some of the other tailors in the Dimensional Domain, with the current quality being brought down by the latter more so than it will be by the former, once he gets back to making things. Some were obviously styled after the fashion of the native worlds that they had come from, but a good portion was at least partially blended with the styles of the Planar Continents. It was rather pleasant to see, even if Wei Yi had no significant attachment to these kinds of things, as it showed that they were not completely disregarding the world they had come to.

Her arrival had not gone unnoticed, though, so she could not stand around forever.

Going over to the nearest person to her, a man clothed in something that she did not know the name of, yet knew that all the memories she accumulated so far saw it as being standard attire for a type of particularly lazy individual, and said, “If you know where one Sarah Wilson is, I’d appreciate it if you told me.”

He looked at her, started to look away while raising a hand, presumably to point, but looked back and quickly moved that hand back to himself as a gleam appeared in his eyes.

“Wait a minute, are you that Ascendant person?”

“You didn’t need to add the ‘person’ part, but yes, that is what I call myself. Did you want to speak with me?”

“I have the ability to create figurines of people that I have at least shook hands with! The model is extremely accurate, and it is one of the most popular products on Orbis! Trust me, with this, you will be able to make millions of… whatever currency is present here, I promise you that!”

“…” Wei Yi couldn’t say anything right away as she was just too stunned by this kind of approach. With little else that she could say, she ended up asking, “Are you sure that there’s such a market here?”

“Of course! Look, let me provide you with an example! Actually, I think that Sarah went there not long ago, so the two of you might meet if she hasn’t yet left!” he continued speaking with an absurd level of excitement, reaching out to grab her hand before noticing that her left was made of endless billowing smoke and had claws in place of ordinary fingers. He tried to take her other hand, but the clawed gauntlet upon it made him rethink that notion very quickly.

Instead, he just did as he had originally intended, pointing towards his place of residence and work. The Ascendant scanned that area with her mental energy, concluded that this was the right direction, and then promptly removed her spiritual perception as she found all of the figurines that the otherworldly demon had been mentioning.

For once, her term for these visitors and invaders from another world seemed extremely appropriate.

Still, she did need to speak with Sarah, so she had to follow the man to his abode, as uncomfortable as she was with the nature of his residence. Perhaps others would be fine with it, and there was a clear interest in this kind of thing within the memories of his world that she was able to grab up, but there were two rather significant differences that she could find from the little fragments of memory that she could obtain without trying to delve deeper than the mind would allow.

First of all, there was her personal feelings and culture, which obviously differed from that of whatever Orbis the man had come from. This was less significant for most, although obviously important for her.

The second difference was that the images the figurines were based upon were, as far as she was able to tell, entirely fictional, whereas every figurine produced through the man’s otherworldly gift was obviously based upon a real person – there were a few traces of attempts to create those kinds of figurines without the use of the otherworldly gift, which was a good thing, but even the best attempts could not match up to a beginner sculptor’s work. In fact, her own work from before she had figured out how blacksmithing was best done would be better, although she was still somewhat better than most at the time, given the minimal quantity of experience she had.

There was something rather disturbing about seeing a real person’s image being captured in a figurine that did not attempt to be realistic, like a statue might be. All of the primary features were exaggerated in strange ways that seemed to be in keeping with the aesthetic popular within the nation of Antanord, and it did not mesh well with reality.

In another context, if she knew none of the people depicted, or couldn’t find traces of them in Dimensional Domain, then she might have seen this as slightly less unpleasant.

“Here it is, my chamber of wonders! Behold the figurines, and tell me how they affect you.”

“How should they be affecting me?”

“Do they excite you?”

“No?”

“No? This doesn’t make sense, though… You are the woman who had gained a… well, a… how should I put it…”

“Wei Yi, have you also gotten to meet this… individual?” he was interrupted and completely ignored by Sarah, who approached and nudged the man out of the way, making sure to limit physical contact with it by using only the tip of her finger, “Before you ask, these kinds of things do exist where I’m from, although never with real people… Many people will have an image of their favourite character on their main watch face, a holographic projection for their AI assistant, some figurines in their glass display at home, and their… I’m not making any sense to you, am I?”

“No, but I suspect that this applies to him as well,” Wei Yi nodded towards the man.

“What?”

“See? Just remember that the lot of you are either from different versions of the same world, or from different time periods and nations, so while there may be similarities between your experiences, that does not guarantee that there will necessarily be complete understanding.”

“You don’t need to tell me that, we’ve figured it out the last time I tried asking someone to make me a replica of my watch… I don’t know what they thought they were giving me, but it was nothing alike.”

“It seemed to be exactly what you had been describing to me-”

“Please stop talking, we are having a conversation on our own at the moment. Later on, when we’re done, then I’m sure the two of us might want to continue whatever conversations we were having with you, but if that is the case, we will inform you then. Got it?” upon seeing him nod – however reluctantly – she put her right arm around Sarah and brought them a little further away from both the man and his residence, “Now, I don’t necessarily dislike that person, but I get the feeling he hasn’t quite adjusted to the world, or to people. His eagerness to make use of otherworldly gifts is also concerning when they have little practical benefit.”

“I got that impression too. People like him are not too uncommon in the world I’m from, and they have a natural interest in the fantastic and supernatural. He’ll calm down eventually, so I just made a large and empty residence for him to use his energy in a more productive way.”

“If you can call it that-”

“I’m Tabuchi Shoji, by the way!” the man called out, forcing the two of them to turn towards him, “Shoji is my name, and Tabuchi is the family name-”

“Look, while I don’t mind you doing your thing, provided that you don’t do anything untoward. I can even forgive your curiosity regarding my sexual interests – providing that was what you were asking, and that I didn’t misinterpret your question. If I had, sorry, and if I haven’t, I’m not answering anyway.”

“I, uh, well… Yeah, I’ll step back. Sorry…”

He took a step back, then a few more, then went behind a wall and focused on something completely different, leaving the Ascendant and Sarah on their own.

“Well… Is it true that dragons in this world are all hermaphrodites?”

“I would comment on how much of a non-sequitur that is, but I did so anyway and can now move onto the more important matter. Have I started releasing some kind of aura that makes people think about sex and sexual organs, or was that just on your mind without there being any experts on the matter that could inform you about this prior to my arrival? I mean, I don’t know that much either, having never met a dragon in person, but that is what all records about them state, so if that was all you wanted to know… you now do,” Wei Yi said, sighing.

“It… it’s that guy’s fault, what with him bringing it up and making every single one of the figurines be incredibly and overtly… eroticised.”

“Not sexualised?”

“There’s a difference, and if there’s one thing that clearly the same within our two worlds, it is that the Antanorden are very familiar with it. In fact, they might well be the sole purveyors of it, though I had not made it a habit to investigate such things…” Sarah glanced at the figurines in the back of the room, then towards the Ascendant, “I don’t think that I had gotten the answer last time we spoke, but… are you a dragon?”

“You’re asking whether I have a dick or not.”

“… Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Ah-”

“But I am no dragon, so don’t you worry about me doing whatever dragons typically do… Depending on interpretation, either looting all artefacts and treasures, kidnapping women, or providing you will dull poetry on very, very interesting matters.”

“… So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“About the current state of this Dimensional Domain, and the fact that I might be able to remove the azure light from your body now. The only problem is that it will compromise your ability to construct this place significantly, at least until your cultivation rises to something reasonable, so if the current Dimensional Domain is not sufficiently advanced, then it may be wiser to delay it until there are more structures and more room for people to live without needing immediate construction efforts… I could assist a little more with that in the future, but my current construction abilities are still lacking.”

“Oh, that’s excellent. I have been a little worried about my state, so if those kinds of dangers are removed, then I shall not mind a temporary halt in construction. In fact, I’d like it soon, since it is quite tiring to manage an actual city with real people and problems, unlike the city building games I usually play.”

“Are you actually leading these people, then, or are you only the construction team?”

“Both, in part. We’re civil enough, so there’s not much that needs to be done, and even those who are used to receiving everything in shops and orders from online stores have managed to find others that can provide those kinds of services,” Sarah Wilson stated, deciding to lean against one of the walls and look up at the wooden ceiling, “It’s quite surprising, actually, but that’s how it is, and I am not about to complain.”

“Good, in that case, I can remove the azure light and you can relax for a little while, before or after you show me what it is that you’ve created here. When should I do it?”

“Now, unless it will exhaust me greatly.”

“It shouldn’t. The biggest danger is that you will be hurt in some outwardly obvious way, but from what I can tell, your otherworldly gift is residing somewhere near…” Wei Yi raised her right hand and lightly brought her clawed fingertip to Sarah’s forehead, “Here. Even if there is some outward damage, it will not be as significant as the loss of vision within one of your eyes, like in the case of Miyu.”

“Then, if you could…”

The Ascendant nodded and removed that finger, swapping to her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow for the ease with which she could execute her method of azure light removal. By channelling all of the power of the Purifier’s Seal through the artificial limb, she could invoke more strength in the same manner that using it to perform Touch the Heavens, as it granted her more room to amplify her energy without regard for her own wellbeing. In theory, she could go as far as she wanted even without it, provided that she did not permanently damage herself, but shredding flesh and bone was significantly less pleasant and far more time consuming than temporarily scattering a bunch of smoke.

She focused on the trace of azure light within Sarah’s body, then, with a slight nudge of her finger, she pierced the skin and invoked the power of the Purifier’s Seal. It grabbed onto the azure light and melted it away from the otherworldly gift contained within the woman’s skull, forcing the light out of her.

The very instant that it was no longer settled snuggly within her body and otherworldly gift, the array of the Truth of the Universe activated, acting upon the azure light and forcing it to depart in the manner that they usually would. Each time she saw this, Wei Yi pondered where these lights would travel, and whether there would be a living being on the other side that would receive them.

Given that the lights appeared to be pieces of energy, potentially seeds for something greater, masses that would produce the power of some fundamental aspect, there needed to be someone or something that wished for their return, or else there would be no reason for them to depart when provided with a relatively simple signal – at least when compared to the power of the azure lights themselves.

Wei Yi believed that the difference between the azure lights and the Imperfect Rift and Eternal Gate of cultivation was that the latter two were purely sources of planar energy, and dependant on both the Laws of the Planar Continents and the state of the cultivator. The azure lights did not appear to be anything like this.

All of them were outside of the Laws of the Planar Continents, and thus imperceptible by using only spiritual perception and powers originating from the continents themselves. Their power was infinite regardless of what the heavens wished, and the energy that they generated was not limited to the five aspects of planar energy. In other words, it was a purer and more powerful and it could simulate planar energy because the latter was only a manifestation of the greater form of energy provided by azure lights, and likely used by the world itself.

She didn’t know what name to give it, nor did she think that she would be the one to do so. It was almost guaranteed that she did not invent or discover it first, and if there were so many of these azure lights in just the Planar Continents, then there were likely to be hundreds of other worlds with millions of azure lights bound to the same number of otherworldly gifts, doing whatever it was that they were meant to be doing. The Ascendant had no clue what that purpose was, not yet.

In theory, pursuing that form of energy would be key for her, as it would allow her to surpass nearly every limit within the Planar Continents and the methods of cultivation available to her. Trying to rush straight toward that would not be advisable, to put it mildly, as it would be nearly impossible without an outright miracle, if those things could even be said to be omnipotent. Instead, her plan was to use her five cultivation paths, condense true planar energy once she had the ability to do so, and then use that to derive the nature of energy that was closer to the original, absolute, perfect energy. In theory, there was something at the very peak, at the very core, from which all energy was derived, something so fundamental that there was nothing simpler than it.

Of course, this was her getting distracted again.

“… Ow. That hurts. That really hurts, actually…” Sarah said, her words getting faster as she put her hand on her forehead and tried her best not to cry out, “Fuck… Was this what Miyu dealt with, but in her eye instead?”

“Possibly, although it took me far longer to figure out what I was doing back then, and so she would have suffered longer.”

“Right… When I next see her, I will be much nicer. Bake her a cake, or ask Lilian to do so for me, since she has an otherworldly gift for that. It’s the intent that matters, I think.”

“You can figure that out on your own. Before then,” Wei Yi suddenly pushed Sarah back a step and pinned her against the wall with her right arm, “I don’t think that people just ask about things without a reason for it. You were curious about me just a minute ago, so what is it that you wished to learn with your question? Has it just been a while since you dealt with those kinds of needs?”

“I… That guy isn’t watching us, is he?”

“I put up a barrier some time ago, so he has no choice but to look elsewhere. Do keep in mind that, now that you have asked that, I am not going to accept you just changing the subject like last time, so think carefully about what you do next.”

Sarah did try to shift her position slightly, but once the Arm was placed on her other side, she had little room to do so, “Alright, I’ll tell you… You’re not entirely wrong. I had a partner on Orbis, and, obviously, he hadn’t come with me… I heard that the culture here is a little different, and that you had gotten three women pregnant despite being a woman yourself, so-”

“You knew that, but still had to ask whether I have a cock? Really?”

“Well, I don’t know what magic can do! Perhaps that’s just normal for people in the Planar Continents, and so I had to check…”

“So, did I catch your attention? Have you always wanted to get to know a woman with something extra?”

She swallowed audibly, no longer able to meet the Ascendant’s gaze, “Had I gotten to do this on my own terms, I might have explained a variety of reasons and, ultimately, excuses about why you grabbed my attention, why I couldn’t stop thinking about you, why I was hoping you’d return from whatever had happened over to the north… If it is true that things are done differently here, then can I just ask for a favour? Just one, and we don’t have to do anything again… at least, I don’t intend to do so at the moment.”

“Do what? I can read your mind to a certain extent, but not to the extent of being able to understand your every want and desire. Even if I could, hearing you say it is far more to my liking,” Wei Yi smiled, although it would be hard not to see her expression as somewhat predatory considering the context.

“… If this makes it out of your barrier, I will never speak to you again…” Sarah said, finally meeting her eyes once more as she bit her lip and blushed, “I want to have a taste of it. You know what I mean.”

“I do. You want this to be a casual, one-time thing, right?”

“If that’s possible…”

“Guessing by the way you’re acting, that is not necessarily going to be the case if you change your mind. Nonetheless, I don’t have a problem with that, and if the three at Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm had a problem with it, they would have said something after I got the other two pregnant,” the Ascendant said, moving her hands from the wall and taking a step back, “Here, or at a more pleasant location?”

Judging by the woman’s suddenly widening eyes, she might have forgotten about their current locale completely, “Oh, anywhere but here… although my bedroom would be best.”

“Very well, then. Take my hand.”

“Ah, so this must be the Ascendant I had heard so much about – and saw not long ago. By the way, Sarah, is there something wrong?”

“Hm? No, nothing at all. Why would you ask?”

“You look a little red.”

That description by another otherworldly demon, an athletic woman wearing a tight sporty shirt and similar shorts, was quite an understatement, as Wei Yi and her knew and as Sarah realised only moments later, since it was difficult not to.

The architect of the Dimensional Domain had hot crimson cheeks and a distracted gaze, with one hand resting beside her lips and a finger attempting to slip in whenever she stopped paying attention. Her eyes were prone to glancing towards the crimson-haired woman on her left, and if that wasn’t bad enough, it also tended to go downwards in an attempt to rest at a certain part of the body.

Given her experience in her original world, as well as her general age, behaving like this should have been out of the realm of possibility, and yet an interaction that she had wished to be so simple left such an impact on her. The attempt to clean her face of the Ascendant’s smell only seemed to bring it more into her focus, while similar attempts to wash out the taste did little more than to put it at the forefront of her mind. She recognised how much she was acting like an inexperienced teenager who had decided to experiment a little with a friend that they liked, in no small part due to how her original experience of this kind was very, very different.

Perhaps that was what left her so off-guard for her mind’s obsession with the silver-eyed woman, since she had never had never been so pleasantly surprised by a first-time interaction before.

“Uh, is she alright? She’s not been paying attention for the last few minutes, and I don’t know what kinds of ailments can come upon someone in this world…” the other otherworldly demon, who had introduced herself simply as Monique to the Ascendant, said.

“She just had to go through a few rather shocking things recently, mainly the removal of the azure light from her otherworldly gift. I’m sure that she’ll get better soon enough, so just give her a little space to adjust,” Wei Yi responded, tapping Sarah on the shoulder to get her attention, “You were going to introduce us to one another, and yet you are so distracted that I have gotten most of the introductions out of the way myself. Would you prefer to go and lie down while I walk around on my own? I’d be fine with that.”

“N-No, sorry, I was just… Uh, this is- wait, you already… Ah, fuck it, I’ll go back home,” she decided, muttering quietly afterward, “No way I’d go to the bed, though. That place… It’d be even more distracting…”

She rushed off a little too quickly, and barged into her own home before running up to the second floor bedroom and shutting the door behind herself, only to realise how much of a mistake that was moments later. The door had been shut before that, so that she could use the bathroom without the very scent she had tried to wash away heading right back towards her, and the ventilation was best described as nigh non-existent, so what she returned to was the same as when she had left it.

It was impossible for her to ignore the warmth, the overwhelming smell, nor her body’s reaction to it. Sitting down right on the floor, beside the bed, where she had been only a few minutes before that.

Her hand gravitated towards the moist spot between her thighs, her breaths heavy and her eyes half-shut as she thought back to the taste of a white, thick fluid within her mouth and upon her tongue. Moving her drenched panties to the side, she inserted a finger without any difficulty at all.

‘Why? Why am I feeling like this? I thought that I’d be able to distract myself with something that would remind me of him instead, but now…’ she tried to contain her moans and whimpers, but soon she was unable to do even that, using three of her fingers to pleasure herself, ‘It must be some kind of magic from this world… There’s no way that something like that can be so pleasant… and delicious…’