Chapter 143: V3C22: Perfection of the Endless Path

“Master, are you certain that is wise? One planar stone is enough to raise one’s level significantly, but when spread out across a spatial realm…”

Wei Yi nodded as she continued to draw the array, “Indeed, but that’s not quite what I’m trying to do. This realm, while benefitting from the outside world, is also separate, so if I can forcefully raise the overall quantity of planar energy faster than in the Continents…”

“You could create a world of people at a greater realm, with greater, more focused techniques, and knowledge that only the Great Families would possess in the modern world,” Yi Shi Ming finished her sentence for her, assisting in the creation of the array by linking it to the entire Kong Prison Realm, digging small channels in the ground with her control over the entire realm according to the design created by Wei Yi.

“Exactly. This is a necessary thing to do, as, eventually, I would not need to do everything myself.”

As the final part of the array was created, the enormous array’s construction quickly followed, shaking the entire prison realm. The rumbling quickly ceased, but that was only because the planar stone that had been placed beside the Ascendant’s Library slowly released a great quantity of planar mist into the air and ground, flooding the world with a quantity of energy that would have otherwise been sufficient to bring one person into the third realm with ease. However, the stone was not emptied entirely, with a few drops remaining in it, serving as an artificial inflation of the total planar energy capacity of the prison realm.

Overall, this increase was almost entirely insignificant, but it would mean that someone would need a few minutes less to reach the first realm, some seconds less to reach the second, and less to reach the third, and this would only grow with every moment as the overall level of the prison realm rose. Someday, it would make all of the difference.

“So, Master, how much of the remaining energy do you intend to use for yourself?”

“Seven of the stones will be used by me, the remaining one is for you,” she answered, separating them with killing will before creating a new array around her seven planar stones.

“I underst- you meant an entire planar stone?”

“Yes. You are currently the only one outside of the prison realm, so it is important that you are able to perform more than the role of a weak assistant. Do your best to return to your former strength with the techniques that I had given you some time ago, and then we will both be able to survive against the Great Aberrant and his cult without me needing to observe you with great care at every single moment. Do you understand?”

“… I understand. I shall not let you down!” Min Lian exclaimed, waiting for Wei Yi to complete the extraction array for her as well before sitting down and beginning her cultivation of the planar energy within.

Wei Yi stood by for a few moments to ensure that nothing unexpected happened to her, as the technique she used had been adapted from the assassin’s previous planar technique combined with some of her own insights, meaning that it had the potential of going terribly wrong and trying to generate another set of meridians for her if she practised it in a very particular manner. That should not occur, considering the fact that all of her techniques were separated in a very clear manner, but with the randomness of her discovery of the multiple meridian network technique, she wouldn’t be surprised if something similar happened again, but this time with dantians or anchors or something.

Fortunately, that did not occur, so she instead sat down in the middle of her set of planar stones and bid Yi Shi Ming to step away, just in case her existence as the spatial spirit somehow interfered with her array, or the other way around. It was unlikely to be as potentially damaging as some theoretical effects of Min Lian’s cultivation method, but it was better to be safe whenever possible, especially when under the effects of significant time dilation.

With the Truth of the Universe and the technique the characters displayed within her mind’s eye, she began to absorb the energy from the planar stones at full force, employing the array based on the many that she had witnessed before in order to draw out, purify and concentrate that energy upon her.

From the seven stones, dense beams of light emerged, most of them containing a foreign shade of silver, blue, red, brown or green, and moved towards her at first, but their direction quickly changed. Instead, they followed the array, assembling a small array of their own as the beams occasionally intermingled with one another. This was no show, done purely for the aesthetic value – although it was fair to say that there was some within the mixture of colours produced by the beams – but instead a method of accumulating energy and using the very properties of the world to benefit her.

‘In theory, at the very least. Try as I might, with my limited comprehension of the heavens of the Planar Continents and the very nature of the world, there is only so much I can accomplish without fortunate revelation,’ she thought, relaxing somewhat when she noticed that the concentration of the planar energy did appear to increase just a little bit, meaning that there was some truth to her theories.

Eventually, this energy reached abdomen, where, after a momentary pause, it all surged into her dantian.

Once it circled around the planar anchor several times, the energy flowed throughout her entire body, going along the circulation paths of her technique in order to bind the planar energy to herself before she could absorb it fully.

She forced the circulation to complete numerous times, straining her meridians until they nearly began to burst and bleed from the growing pressure of the planar energy that was desperate to enter something that could actively sustain and maintain it, simultaneously circulating her existing energy to support and strengthen them, composing a small array through these channels of energy to increase that effect even further. After a moment of thought, she also ignited the dantian bone talismans to further empower that planar energy, as well as her own, before finally deciding that it was time to process the planar energy for herself.

It sunk into her planar aperture, mixing with the cosmic light of her own energy and the constant mist that was exuded from the nascent rift that sat within the planar anchor, and as it was processed, the planar pool grew. After only a brief time, it began to press against the spectral walls of her planar aperture, slowly pressing against it further and further until the boundary of the stage was finally surpassed.

At once, her planar energy surged out of her body, forming the vague outline of her anchor around her as it condensed, became denser and stronger, slowly coalescing into less transparent crystal.

Shattering suddenly, it crashed back into her body before surging out as the breakthrough of the perfected stage occurred, cleansing every tiny particle of her body once more, purging the many influences that had built up over the many years since her last breakthrough, transforming her entirely without a single obvious change.

‘Thus, the second stage and first perfected stage is reached, with roughly one twentieth of the energy. Considering the fact that the consumption of planar energy increases each time, and that I had already built up some energy myself, the next breakthrough might require one ninth, then one third, then the equivalent of everything I currently have, so I can expect to reach the fourth stage, possibly the fifth if I have a stroke of luck and figure out some method of reducing the quantity of energy that I require without compromising the power of my techniques,’ Wei Yi thought to herself, turning her head slightly towards the spatial spirit, “Would you happen to have any knowledge of the specific techniques that your son had created and practised? It would help quite a lot to know of one or two.”

“Is your current technique not one that Shi Meng had compiled?”

“It is, but I am only able to obtain the current information for my stage, so I do not know how I will proceed and how much of the technique is actually applicable to my own situation. Getting a better understanding of the things he had created with the Truth of the Universe would be beneficial.”

“In that case, I can offer you some insights. Permit me a moment to gather my memories of his techniques.”

“Certainly. Before that, though, I’d like to congratulate you on how quickly you’ve managed to pick up the modern language of the Continents. A little longer and you might be able to go outside without anyone realising that you had been alive more than a million years ago, although I have actually met a few people that tended to use older words and terms despite not being anywhere near your age,” she said, the image of Chu Ling appearing within her mind.

While she waited for Yi Shi Ming to pass along the relevant techniques and her understanding of them, she looked into her dantian and upon the anchor, which would be the primary thing to change during the following breakthroughs.

What she saw was rather confusing. The overall power of the structure had clearly increased, as the energy that emanated from the five sides of the anchor grew brighter and significantly more vibrant, but the stability of the structure itself seemed to be decreasing, as if a force was pushing on the anchor from within and trying to break it apart. From all of the anchors she had witnessed previously, as well as her understanding of what an anchor was meant to develop into with every single stage that was reached.

To put it a little more simply, this was highly concerning.

You are reading story Path of the Ascendant at novel35.com

‘A planar anchor is the core of a cultivator’s advancement past the second realm, so if explodes or something like that, I will be in a terrible situation…’ she thought, considering whether it was wise to temporarily cease all absorption of energy and rethink her cultivation path before proceeding, but with the array still functioning actively, she didn’t have much of a choice.

“I have remembered all I could, but, even if you trust the assassin of the Scorching Blades, I shall speak to you through vocal transmission,” Yi Shi Ming said after a short while, using voice transmission to do so, “My son was incredibly powerful, and it would be for the best if the majority could not learn of his secrets in the way that you or I have. I know that thou art… I mean, that you are well aware of what granting everyone too much power can lead to, but as my son had said many times, even the wisest, smartest person in the world could benefit from the occasional reminder. Having said that, here is what I know…”

 

As the third real stage and the second perfected stage were reached, Wei Yi saw that the effect on the anchor grew further, with small cracks appearing in the surface of the anchor that was slowly turning more and more crystalline.

Meanwhile, what she gained from Yi Shi Ming was rather limited as well, providing her with only a little bit of information regarding the ultimate conclusion of her current cultivation path, but not much about the specific stages, as Kong Shi Meng himself had apparently been rather secretive about his techniques even to his mother, achieving most of them with experimentation and luck combined with the deductive abilities of the Truth of the Universe rather than raw knowledge.

Thus, the most she could do for now was to adapt some of the circulation paths currently in use to be more suitable for upcoming cultivation stages before pressing on.

After her second breakthrough of the day, she had only a little more than eight ninths of the energy remaining, which was being consumed rapidly as she approached the fourth ordinary stage and the third perfected stage. The changes in her circulation paths did make some difference, optimising the process ever so slightly, but it was mostly insignificant overall, yet again, prompting her to glance at the Truth of the Universe’s interface and the 34 that represented her overall remaining anchor energy pool with an idea.

The technique that the Master of Yi City had created was incredible, that was obvious, but he had made it for himself, adapting it afterwards to suit whoever would acquire the characters after him, meaning that it was not necessarily as optimal for her as it could be. Unlike many, she had an immense amount of knowledge about her own body, the advantage of multiple types of energy, seemingly the most powerful physique to ever originate in the Planar Continents and a library full of techniques from which to draw inspiration, meaning that so long as the Truth of the Universe did not require too much anchor energy to act, she could use it to quickly modify the Mysterious Character technique into one that would be perfect for her.

Since the button was next to the technique, it meant that she could afford it, causing the only question to be whether she should.

‘I don’t have any answer other than yes, do I? Depending on how much there is to fix, this could immensely boost my abilities, potentially prevent the approaching collapse of the anchor, and give me a whole host of abilities that I can’t even theorise about right now. With that, claiming more anchor energy would not be a challenge at all,’ she reasoned, mentally pressing the button to advance the technique.

The Mysterious Characters technique faded for a moment, the line it occupied becoming blank, before it flashed several times, each one consuming another point of anchor energy as if it attempted to complete itself but found, each time, that it needed more to truly be complete.

Taking a total of eight anchor energy points to complete, the technique name finally returned with a flash, this time bearing the name of Ascendant’s Path, and was now within the first stage, meaning that some great development had occurred behind the scenes, so to speak. Just as she began to think that this was nothing more than a random replacement, or a change in name only, she finally felt her body change in accordance with the change in the technique itself. All of her meridians trembled as the anchor within her body, the dantian and its bone walls, the spectral core, the bones and muscles and even the very air around her changed, completely and utterly.

Despite that, when she looked upon the final appearance of her planar energy, as it slowly built up to a point sufficient to break through once more, the quantity she had already built up seemingly having been doubled through the development of the technique, it was almost indistinguishable, with the only thing of note being the increase of nebulae that she could see ‘through’ the planar energy, with the five colours of the elements being more prominent within the cosmic dust.

What did clearly change was the power that the cosmic crystalline light contained.

Once it surged out of her body once more, it was as if the very event that had begun her journey occurred once more, a wave of impossibly hot flame appearing to consume her body from within. However, just as sudden as that was, a wave of soothing earth-like energy replaced it, followed by a metallic silver light and then a torrent of freezing water. The next wave was not a wave at all, but instead seemed like a series of roots that grew from the dantian and entered every muscle, bone and organ of her body, although none of those roots, nor any of the previous waves were truly visible to the naked eye or her spiritual perception.

She thought that this would be the end, given that the waves had gone through all of the five elements, but then an incredibly powerful electric shock struck her system, all of her muscles tensing for a few incredibly lengthy moments as all of the blood within her seemed to outright evaporate, leaving her dry and empty.

The true final wave turned out to be one of blood, washing over her and refilling her blood vessels and resuscitating her in one moment, before all of these energies formed around her into a cosmic anchor, mirroring the one within her planar aperture. In the external mirage, she could see how all of the force that was threatening to pull it apart was concentrated on her head, a huge sphere of violet light that actively pushed away the solid matter of the anchor, resembling an enormous star.

‘Alright then, that’s something. With how little experience I have with five-sided anchors, amongst other things, I cannot think of anything to do to resolve this,’ she stared at the violet light that floated near her head before it collapsed and rebuilt itself once more during the breakthrough of the perfected stage, bringing her to the fourth stage.

Before she could observe any further changes to her anchor and her energy, the rest of the planar energy within the planar stones rushed into her dantian, filling it in a single go and putting her at the edge of yet another breakthrough in a single moment. This would have normally gone past too quickly for someone to comprehend, but her perception of time slowed as her focus returned to the Truth of the Universe, and the remaining twenty-six units of anchor energy that the large dark screen displayed to her.

‘If this phenomenon will occur again, then I will receive the instant benefit of not only the planar energy cleansing my body, but also of each element and their effects, meaning that the key right now would be to maximise the following breakthrough and hope that it will not cause the anchor to shatter outright. Out of all of the combined elements, I will likely only be able to afford to develop one with the assistance of the Truth of the Universe, so I should probably make it count…’ she thought, eventually deciding that out of all of the elements, metal and wood might produce the best combination.

From what she had seen so far, the two combined elements in her possession, blood and lightning, had great abilities and could easily overpower most of the other simple elements in most situations, so she hoped that the infusion of metal into wood would somehow produce something similarly effective.

As eleven points sank away from the interface, she felt seven waves flood her body yet again, this time occurring with a far briefer gap between them, passing in a single second and yet containing an even more intense power than before, followed by a new wave, which mimicked both the freezing cold metal and the roots that spread throughout her flesh, countless silver vines taking root within her while many equally silvery leaves grew upon them, with the most leaves sprouting near her skin and the air outside.

Together, these eight forms of power formed into the spectral anchor around her, with metallic vines growing at the top of the anchor, bridging metal and wood together despite their lack of proximity nearer to the middle of the five-sided structure. This anchor radiated immense force, the ground beneath her cracking alongside the planar stones, which shattered into dust and then into nothingness as all of their energy was drained, while the anchor itself visibly bulged outwards as the sphere within it continued to grow, clearly being at the very edge of shattering the outside of the anchor when the perfected stage breakthrough washed over her body.

The anchor should have looked unstable, terrifying, and entirely too risky to keep in the state that it was, but that’s what confused her once she had a closer look at the anchor once it returned into her dantian – it did not seem fragile, despite any light tap potentially causing the anchor to crack, and the fear that she initially had faded against all logic and sense that she understood.

She frowned and was about to question Yi Shi Ming about this when she suddenly realised what this cracking, crystalline form reminded her of.

‘Although this is incredibly strange, it is somehow reminiscent of the Ascendant’s Dao itself. It contains an incredibly small fragment of the greater Dao of the world, it seems, so no matter how contradictory it appears, it means that there must be a correct path using the current effects on the anchor…’

Wei Yi relaxed slightly, then turned to the spatial spirit nonetheless, “Do you recall how many sides your son’s anchor had?”

“Three, same as most others. However, they were all violet, made from pure planar energy. They did not align with the typical five directions of elemental anchors, but that was not an exceptional aspect of his cultivation in particular.”

Nodding in acknowledgement, she looked back into her planar aperture, ‘Then, what exactly have I created?’

You can find story with these keywords: Path of the Ascendant, Read Path of the Ascendant, Path of the Ascendant novel, Path of the Ascendant book, Path of the Ascendant story, Path of the Ascendant full, Path of the Ascendant Latest Chapter