Chapter 114: V2C57: Land of White

The storm wall before them trembled. A pulse of peculiar white slowly expanded on the other side of the crimson, pushing through into the crimson just before it finally and fully dispersed. Nevertheless, it left behind a faint white light within the centre of the pulse, roughly on the level of an average man’s heart.

It slowly advanced, the shape moving forward like the front of a large sphere.

‘I see that they are indeed using the method described by Bai Hao, using spiritual will to push through the killing intent. In the normal situation, they would then be greeted by the explorative group and the connection would be formed for just enough time for the two sides to cross to the right side and allow the gap to seal behind them,’ she thought, waiting for the sphere of spiritual will to advance sufficiently far, ‘This time, however, they will see the innovations of the so-called savages.’

When the time was right, she thrust her hand outwards and released an enormous sphere of her own spiritual will to match the one being sent in her direction, piercing through the first inch of the storm wall without any difficulty.

However, it could hardly continue, for the chaotic energy of the storm-like killing intent grew far more powerful the further it went, forcing her to compress it significantly until it was nothing more than a needle that was desperately attempting to pierce the storm, with every single movement in the depths of the crimson clouds causing this needle to tremble.

Just as it was about to exit the range of her control, it tapped the spiritual will on the other side of the prison realm, and connected to it, overwhelming the energy of the other cultivator quickly.

With the joined powers, she infused her stabilising energy into the connection and forcefully tore the dense storm wall asunder, bringing it to the size of her original spiritual will sphere in width and height. White light poured from the other side, but before anyone could adjust to it and see exactly what was on the other side, Wei Yi moved her hand back towards herself and closed it into a fist, the rest of her spiritual will exploding out of her hand and heading towards the many pieces of the gateway that lay behind her.

They flew up, carried by nothing other than her will, and forced themselves into the open space, setting up several large arches that were connected at the top and sides, with shallow channels of energy and various arrays connecting themselves across them.

She flooded these arrays with her killing intent, linking it with that of the storm walls, and infused the spiritual will that she expended on moving the stones into the remaining space within them, bright crimson and white pouring out of all of them and filling in the rest of the empty space between them to form the full archway. A small quantity of power surged out of either side of the passageway, preventing the killing intent or spiritual will from surging into the open path via either end.

As if reacting to her actions, the storm walls on both sides suddenly pressed down, desperately attempting to crush the gateway that she had created, but she had naturally accounted for this.

Despite this seeming intelligent effort, it was still a wild force, thus striking every part of the gateway at once and acting right into her hand, for the force from one side of the gateway was reflected onto the other side to maintain its stability, simultaneously drawing from the twin energies to refill the arrays and inscriptions while the exhausted energy contributed to the storm, thus stabilising both the storms and the gateway in a way that could not be achieved by the sheer effort of people alone, which was likely what so many intruders into one or the other side of the prison realm had failed to attempt due to the lacking knowledge of the great arts in this spatial realm.

Even if it had previously been attempted before, the man on the other side of the prison realm was clearly unaware of such things, for he looked at the sight before him with bewilderment, as did the people that stood behind him, and those that stood behind them.

Since they would not take the initiative to speak, Wei Yi stepped into the gateway first and announced, “Greetings, people from the right side of the prison realm! My name is Wei Yi, and I am the leader of Beast’s Rest, the largest faction on the left side, and I wish to bid you welcome. From now on, there shall be a permanent connection between the two of us, so I hope that our relationship shall be prosperous.”

They remained stunned for a little longer, before the man at the front, whose spiritual will receded into his body when it had no more reason to remain within the air, took a similar step forward.

“The expedition that was meant to meet us – what have you done with them?”

“Master Fen, we’re fine!” Hao Gang rushed to Wei Yi’s side and then proceeded to the white side of the prison realm once the latter presented no objections, “We were planning to come through, but we found an outpost on the other side of the realm and when you began to open the passage, this woman came forward and used both spiritual will and killing intent to complete the connection!”

“Permit me to inspect your minds for a moment,” this Master Fen whispered to them, reaching out with a strand of spiritual will.

‘It is only natural that they would use such methods, so the fact that I helped… clear their minds several times should assist in preventing this man from observing my interrogations,’ Wei Yi thought and snuck her own strand of spiritual will into the back of Hao Gang’s head.

The Weapon Condensation master’s brow twitched for a second when her spiritual will brushed against his, but he did not appear to notice her and continued browsing through Hao Gang’s memories. He saw the things that she intentionally brought forward first, like her latest few months in the prison realm, but then he continued back into the past, towards the year in which Wei Yi met with the woman in white.

To his astonishment, however, he found that the memories from that time were cloudy, and that several portions of them were entirely absent, although he could not perceive any possible cause for it.

‘That worked, then… Easier than expected,’ Wei Yi thought to herself while she waited for the man to view a different part of Hao Gang’s mind so that she could revoke her spiritual will thread and pretend that she hadn’t gotten involved in his mental investigation and that her spiritual will techniques were limited to offensive, defensive and constructive purposes, not mental ones.

“Wei Yi, of the Crimson Side, you wish for peaceful relations with the Virtuous Si-”

“No, no, don’t do this. Either it’s the Crimson and White Side, or Sinful and Virtuous, or something else. You can’t just put two random things together and expect it to sound reasonable,” she interrupted him.

“The savages of this realm-”

“Once again, I do have to stop you. For one, I have come from the Planar Continents, and two, to label everyone here a savage sounds much like the actions of the Greats, does it not?”

“If you have truly originated from the outside realm, then you should perfectly understand the stance of the Virtuous Side. The killing intent that actively flows on your side floods your meridians, your mind, your body, and you regularly consume the blood of your so-called Beast. You and those that have lived within the Crimson Side are the true criminals of the world!” the man in white declared confidently, “From what I see, your cities are also representative of this-”

“Enough of that.”

Wei Yi’s voice was grim as her immense killing intent surged out of her and forcefully flooded into the other side of the prison realm, overpowering whatever natural restriction kept the white and crimson apart, and stepped forward as she made the crimson energy intrude into the man in white’s personal space.

“You’re the type that foolishly looks down on everyone, aren’t you? Furthermore, true criminals, you said? That’s who you think we are?”

Master Fen felt a shiver go up his spine when he felt the crimson flood toward him, but he remained stalwart, “Naturally. Those who end up on our side are imprisoned for purely political reasons, while yours is full of vicious killers! Why do you think some end up there, and some end up here?”

“Vicious killers…” she took another step towards him, her bare foot landing in the white sand of the spiritual will side of the prison realm, “Frankly, I can’t speak for most of the people behind me, or their parents. Perhaps some could truly be guilty of so-called vicious killing. Perhaps if the leader of Beast’s Rest was anyone else, you could have a point. Unfortunately for you, you are speaking to me. If I was to share some of my life with you, would you even care?”

“You think you can change the truth-”

“I was born a servant in one the families of Yi City – some have guessed which one already, but I’ll leave you to figure it out yourself – and I had some rather poor abilities, at first. However, after a lucky break, I learnt that since my birth, I had been living within a house affected by four arrays intended to do nothing but dull my mind, weaken my cultivation ability and ensure that I would never amount to anything!” she exclaimed, a mirage of the arrays appearing behind her, “Once I broke it and improved, I tried to grow, exactly as the family expected, while being cautious of whoever was responsible for the array… Wanna guess who had been responsible?”

“Are you going to pin all of your troubles on the Greats? Would you not be as immature as you described me?”

“Oh, so you are paying attention. Good. No, I don’t intend to blame everything on a single party, as that would be foolish. However, there is one thing that I do know,” Wei Yi said, “After the entire expeditionary force that was exploring the ancient Kong Holy Grounds was slaughtered by the spatial realm’s consciousness united with someone that had power that they should not have possessed, I returned to my home to find it burning. Everyone I had gotten close to was either killed or forced to flee. Experts in the fourth and fifth realms of planar cultivation were slaughtered as if they were nothing. The culprits had an odd aura around them, with strange phantoms that almost seemed like other figures surrounding them.”

“You’ve upset the Great Families, then?”

“No, not me. My actions had no effect on their actions. Apparently, my parents had something to do with it, but do you really think that their actions were in any way justified? Ensuring that my life would be a failure, slaughtering anyone I know, burning half of the fucking district just to get at me, then sealing me in a realm that, I suspect, they might not even be aware of the fact that it supports life, you think these are the actions of those who act wisely and imprison true criminals?” she paused for a breath, “What about the Thunder Lord, Meng Qi? I have seen his memories, and I know some of the reason behind his actions, even if most of his memories were of his nightly activities.

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“He was not some kind of vile, treacherous figure. He simply learned a truth of the Greats, allied with other forces, and attempted to rebel against them. I do not know exactly what led to this, but he was most certainly feeling that he was in the right. And yet, he ended up on this side, not on yours.”

“You-”

“So, the other side of the prison realm shares in our beliefs! Good to know!” a voice in the distance, within the white side of the realm, suddenly exclaimed, prompting Master Fen to turn around.

The rest of the figures in white also turned to face a small approaching force of others in similar outfits, except their robes were decorated with silver threads whereas the group they were currently speaking to had none within their clothing. In addition, the one that had addressed them, a tall and mature man, had the vague shapes of the Planar Continents on the front of his robes.

Judging by the immediate negative reaction of Master Fen and the others, they did not get along.

“Would you care to introduce yourself?” Wei Yi said, looking between Master Fen and the other figure warily.

“Of course. I am Mo Liang Shen, part of the Continental faction of the so-called Virtuous Side. As you might be able to tell, somewhat of a schism has formed within the otherwise orderly right side of the prison realm, and the people you have been speaking with are part of the Nobility faction, who consider themselves to be temporarily exiled out of necessity by the Great Families, rather than our appearance here being purely coincidental.”

“I see…” the brief distraction allowed her to suppress her killing intent enough to regain most of her sanity, “Based on the knowledge that I possess, your position would appear to be the more reasonable one. Master Fen, you ought to consider this position.”

“Hao Gang, we shall be leaving now. These barbarians and the dissidents shall make a good pairing, I’m sure!” Master Fen exclaimed, trying to keep himself composed, “Fools.”

He waved to those that had followed him and left with Hao Gang and those that had initially followed her into the left of the prison realm, though none of them paid any particular attention to the latter group, as they lacked any particular skills or information. Meanwhile, the man in the white and silver robes took their place.

“Greetings once again, everyone. You are the first people from the other side to come through to us in quite some time, so would you object to being shown around the place?” Mo Liang Shen proposed, holding out his hand as if to allow Wei Yi to take it.

“So long as the Nobility faction has no objections beyond that, I would not,” she replied, approaching him without any further action.

The man did not appear to mind, lowering his hand and turning around, “Then, please follow me.”

They did not need to get far before the greatest structure in the entirety of the prison realm came into view, prompting every single one of them to stop. Wei Yi, Mo Liang Shen and Bai Hao had seen this many, many times before, with the first among them getting an excellent view from the third’s memories, but they and the natives of the Crimson Side had the exact same response as the ivory towers came into view.

Before them, Sanctuary reached into the skies with countless spires of varying heights that were arranged into a complex geometric pattern that could only be perceived from above.

Every single spire glistened as if they were made from diamonds, all cut perfectly to a single size to match the rest. Soft white light surrounded all of it, further brightening the fantastic glimmering of the gem-like structures.

Five primary towers stood in the middle, going the highest into the sky out of every single structure, and were connected to one another near the ground with aerial walkways. They also joined to a single tower that stood further away from the centre, of which there were nine, with their connecting pathways being higher up in the air, and the pathways that led to the third, fourth, fifth and sixth ring of towers were also higher than the others, with the outermost set of towers being connected to the next at their very peak.

It was a curious visage, with two overlapping patterns trapping the eye.

‘They didn’t have that many connecting passages back in Bai Hao’s day, so I suppose that they have continued working on this city all this time,’ Wei Yi thought, looking to either side of it.

Perfectly straight roads stretched out from the north and west of the city, travelling in a perfectly smooth line through otherwise uneven hills of white sand, with rows of smoothly aligned white trees with white bark and white leaves decorating it.

Far away, through a dense white fog, two more cities could be seen at the ends of the roads, although none matched the size or opulence of Sanctuary.

“What of the construction of Sanctum Omega? Is it complete now?” Bai Hao asked suddenly.

“The construction was completed several dozen years ago, under our observation, of course. The Nobility faction thought that it was odd to have certain members that were not as noble as others,” Mo Liang Shen did not question how Bai Hao knew about something this old, for he was able to perceive a connection between him and Wei Yi and likely suspected that even if he was not some kind of remnant consciousness, he was not someone that lived in the present day.

“Actually, there is something I wish to confirm with you before we get any closer to Sanctuary,” she said, before Mo Liang Shen had the opportunity to get going once more, “I was told about a method of competition that was common here, and I wished to see how I would fare.”

He nodded, “A single form of competition is indeed common amongst us. If you were indeed the one to use spiritual will in the opening of this gateway, then I would be more than pleased.”

Pointing to a flat part of the terrain, he took his place at one side of the area while waiting for Wei Yi to occupy the other. Naturally, he was very curious about her exact abilities, but he would not ask such things outwardly, instead allowing her to reveal things on her own pace.

She did exactly that, calculating the furthest distance that she could stand at while still being able to reach him and then getting onto that exact point without any signs that she had indeed done any kind of proper contemplation or consideration, ending up exactly nine metres away from Mo Liang Shen. Based on what she understood about spiritual will cultivation, his range would have been eighteen metres at most, which is where she would have also preferred to stand, but unless she invested most of her spiritual will into expanding the range of her actions, she would be unable to keep up if the man in silver and white acted at his full strength.

“Is your side more hospitable than we thought, or had spiritual will cultivation begun in the Planar Continents as well?” Mo Liang Shen said, seemingly being sufficiently satisfied with her prowess.

“Neither. I was fortunate,” she replied, “Shall we?”

The man in white and silver nodded, waving his hand and releasing a sphere of his spiritual will around himself. It rapidly expanded to the diameter of one metre, at which point it was completely stable and free of random fluctuations, with the density of it being sufficient to completely obscure any of his features.

Wei Yi replied similarly, forcing her spiritual will sphere to stretch to five metres instantly, relying on the raw power and quantity of her energy and the stabilisation granted by her planar anchor.

“You wish to begin quickly, then? Allow me!” he exclaimed as his spiritual will expanded similarly, impacting into her sphere as it reached the same scale. Unlike her stable sphere, his one began to lightly tremble and fluctuate.

She made her spiritual will retreat by half a metre and frowned, “I have to say, I am not sure there’s a good reason to continue. Your energy is lacking in stability and strength, whereas mine is not…”

“Indeed,” Mo Liang Shen nodded, revoking his energy as she revoked hers, “Since you have delayed us, I shall do the same. I heard some of your speech, as you know, and I got the impression that you would have the desire to leave and fight back against the Greats. If, for instance, you were to get the chance to defeat all of them, what would you do?”

“Me?” she wanted to shrug at first, but then she recalled her ultimate goal in life, or the lack of one. She had already decided that the Yi City needed to be rebuilt without the Greats, or those that attempted to follow in their footsteps, and the reason behind that… “I’d like justice. A world, a Yi City, where people like the Greats, or the otherworldly demons that seep into our world, have no chance to act however they like. A place where none can threaten others just because they gain a little bit of power. You can understand an idea like that, can’t you?”

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