Chapter 178: V3C56: Concern

Sitting at the crossroads some distance outside of the Luo District, Wei Yi’s expression was rather grim.

In her hand was a document that she read over several times, carefully and attentively, then she didn’t even burn or destroy it but instead stored it within the House of Gold, where it could be carefully confirmed and examined again if she needed to do so.

On the papers that she had read were several things of note, and while she did suspect some of them, the rest came as a large surprise to her. It stated without a shred of doubt that the faction she had been forced into joining, although there was no kind of binding agreement upon her that would prevent her from exiting, was not at all what it seemed.

According to what she learnt, the faction that had made up the primary opposition to the Greats within the War of Yin had split up into two separate groups, and only one of them held true to their ideals.

The other half, the one that was now called the Remnants of Yin, had fallen under the control of the Great Families, and their actions were now dedicated entirely to ensuring that another faction of the same sort wouldn’t rise within their area of control by attracting those with the tendency for rebellion and binding them to their cause through trickery and deception. They would send out new recruits to kill those that were truly interested in opposing the Greats, or otherwise continuously presented warped perspectives until they had been persuaded to side with the Great Families without even realising it.

Fortunately for her, not only was she already well prepared for something of this nature, as wary as she was from the start, but her simpleminded persona had also prevented Luo Lia Kun and the rest from attempting the latter sort of persuasion, trying instead to make her kill people without truly questioning why.

With this information, the lengthy explanation provided by the vice-leader on the man with the Devil General physique and his ability to persuade people when he sees that he is in a poor place, serving to distract them so that they wouldn’t kill him in time, made far more sense. It was quite clearly intended to prevent her from listening to any of his pleas and to make someone who already seemed eager to kill whoever she could as quickly as possible do so even more quickly.

There was a chance that this wasn’t true, of course, but that was only if this one man’s claims were false. With the evidence from several individuals, as well as her own observations, this became significantly less likely.

During her stay within the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Power, she had always been careful not to reveal anything within the range of the sealed chamber where the leader should be, and always paid careful attention to every minor thing in the area. There were quite a few interesting movements on the part of certain individuals that she presumed to be a part of the Remnant of Yin faction, and while none of them outright exposed them, there were certainly signs of behaviours against the wrong side of the conflict, not to mention the fact that the Greats would never use someone with the Devil General physique as one of their agents.

She had encountered them twice in the past, and she knew that they had somewhat of a disdain for more normal individuals. They wouldn’t recruit some ‘mutated freak’, as they’d likely call the man she had been sent to kill, perhaps even if they believed that it was absolutely necessary for their future endeavours.

Perhaps this was different for Great Families other than the ones that she had the misfortune of encountering, but that also appeared to be rather unlikely. For all of their differences in apparel and the seeming divides between certain ones of them, the Greats appeared to have a lot of similarities between different families, and thus their views on the others shouldn’t differ all that significantly. At most, one would have those not from the Great Family a little less than others.

From the outside, Wei Yi looked to be one of the most ordinary people out there, so if they somehow found a fault with her, this Devil General would fare no differently.

‘Then again, I still don’t understand what my exact crime was, in their eyes. I could be misunderstanding this particular aspect of their beliefs, although I doubt that it would truly make much of a difference. They’re still abhorrent entities either way.’

In theory, she could charge down the Brotherhood of Power, confront their leader, and try to end things in this district, but she did not consider this to be a reasonable solution whatsoever. First of all, her combat prowess was not infinite. She was much stronger than she let on, but only so much stronger. With enough people between the third and fifth realms, she wouldn’t stand a chance against them all, especially not if the leader possessed some techniques of the Great Families and truly had fifth realm combat strength.

Then, there was the fact that she was still not certain which ones amongst the Brotherhood of Power were a part of the Remnants of Yin, nor who amongst them, if any, were acting out of their own free will rather than some form of coercion. Perhaps the Greats found some way to end their lives instantly if they disobeyed, and thus they had no choice but to go against their former allies.

It was also unknown how much interest and attention from the Great Families was focused upon the Brotherhood of Power and the Remnants of Yin. If they were always observing it, then her reckless charge would only invite a pair of third generation Greats to attack, if not someone from the second or first generation in the worst-case scenario. With those in the second generation being in the fifth realm, she wouldn’t stand a chance against them and their excessive number of anchors, and she would certainly be incapable of doing a thing against a member of the Great Families in the seventh realm even if she had the full support of the heavens on her side.

Since that didn’t seem to be the case, caution was necessary, as well as patience.

Her intention was to return to the Brotherhood of Power without making a fuss, pretending that she had completed their task much like those before this one, then attempt to train as much as possible and raise her power as much as she was able to. Ideally, she would reach the second half of the Emergent Anchor realm, obtaining the Endless Monolith and whatever powers that it held, as well as the second realm of bloodline cultivation and a new stage of physique cultivation, preferably with some physique abilities ascending, but since all of that would be rather unlikely, she would take all that she was given, make the most of it, then attack the very instant that she thought herself to be in the best possible position.

That was all that she could possibly do, given the current overwhelming state of the Great Families in comparison to what little she had to herself. It would be a long time until that could change, and the process could only begin with a safe place and sufficiently trained soldiers.

As such, she made her way back with the appropriate level of personal exhaustion and harm that one might suffer after a lengthy battle, all of which was self-inflicted for the most optimal effect. She naturally refrained from creating anything that would resemble fatal injury, not because she was concerned that she couldn’t recover from it – depending on the kind of wound, she was almost certain that it could be recovered in seconds – but because it would be rather odd to have suffered so greatly with so much preparation, personal power, while also surviving and winning.

Furthermore, there would be no reason for her to walk back towards the Brotherhood of Power before healing any fatal wounds, so the most that would be shown would be a few stains of blood and scars.

That much she could easily recreate, and so she did so, although she focused the most on bruises, seeing as that was what one would expect from a battle against someone who focused the most on his fists and other blunt strikes, with a few cuts that could be expected from a sharp bone growth somewhere on his body.

Despite a day having passed since her last breakthrough, there were still no guards to be found anywhere near the borders of the district, a fact that was made obvious by the large quantities of talisman ash floating away from the first and second lines of defence. Whether they were caused by men or beasts, such things would not be seen if there were even a few guards around to ensure that the talismans were being used properly, and most wouldn’t even bother to enter without permission if they saw armed patrols guarding the area.

Within the district, there were also very few armed troops of the Luo family, to the point that the streets were quiet as most remained indoors, likely afraid that this unexpected exodus of warriors meant something bad for them and their business in the district.

‘Have they found something interesting as a result of my breakthrough, or are they still focusing on that?’ Wei Yi wondered to herself, pretending to walk in a highly fatigued manner on her usual route towards the Brotherhood of Power, and even acted as if she didn’t notice the person that was obviously intending to bump into her, ‘Either way, I will need to watch out for anything that they may find, and steal it if it proves either incriminating or significant to me as well. Now, as for this…’

The person that was walking towards her wore a hood with some basic spiritual perception obstructing properties, but they were insufficient to block all but the most basic and weak glance with it for the average third realm cultivator, not to mention someone like her. For this reason, it was rather clear that this was the same man that had approached her last time.

Even if she was mistaken, somehow, and this was his twin brother or some mimic, the item in one of his pockets was certainly the same.

They collided just as she had expected, and during their brief period of contact, a thin point attempted to pierce her skin. It was made from a very high-quality material, but it was not enhanced by planar energy, nor was it an artefact, meaning that all it was able to do was bounce off her skin without making a noticeable mark. For this reason, Wei Yi didn’t even bother to slow down and talk to him, perhaps to ask what he was up to, and instead walked off before he could notice.

He also distanced himself from her before taking a look at the small spike that he had tried to use, finding out only then that he had failed to draw any blood at all. Visibly holding back some curses, he looked towards her and sighed, heading off with a grim look.

‘That guy will probably try it again, won’t he? Is he just trying to be sure?’

Once again, he left her range of spiritual perception quickly, so she did not have the chance to see what he was going to do next, nor whether there were any nearby individuals with whom he conversed and that gave him orders, but so long as he was not doing anything malicious to her beyond just trying to confirm her bloodline, she was not going to display any suspicious actions like suddenly turning around and chasing after him when he clearly didn’t take anything from her.

Although she had tried to avoid an odd encounter then, she immediately ran into another one the moment that she entered the Brotherhood of Power headquarters.

“Ah, there you ar- Did you find your target already?” Luo Lia Kun had been prepared to speak casually until she saw all of the injuries on her body, at which point she rushed forward to examine them carefully, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, fine… What’re you lot doing?”

She was standing beside Chao Ru, Zhi Qiu Ya and a few others, who all looked on with varying degrees of worry for her and curiosity about the treatment that she was receiving from the vice-leader.

“We were going to do some mental strength tests, but…” Chao Ru explained, but once she confirmed that Wei Yi did not appear to be dying straight away, she looked towards Luo Lia Kun mischievously, “Say, boss, you don’t ever look after us like that, even when we are heavily injured… Is this a bit of favouritism I see?”

“What’s wrong with me confirming that one of our strongest third realm fighters is fine?” Luo Lia Kun didn’t appear phased, “I’m also not the one sleeping with her.”

“I d-don’t know a thing,” Chao Ru looked away, her face quickly reddening.

In her stead, Zhi Qiu Ya seemed to take over, “Are you going to start shaming someone for encouraging said strongest fighter to remain in our Brotherhood? Keep in mind that she is also helping both me and the pair of crazy people, so that’s all doubly important.”

“What are you two doing?” the vice-leader didn’t so much ask as she stated, having already passed a pill to Wei Yi and moved her attention fully to the original matter, “I don’t remember seeing any of you be this coordinated with one another in combat, or even in casual conversation, and yet you are actually defending one another… What have I missed? Zhi Qiu Ya, have you finally come to like someone outside of your animal state?”

“Don’t let your imagination get the better of you,” the wolven woman quickly evaded the question, “You said it yourself. Wei Yi is very capable. I appreciate that.”

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“Right. So-”

“Wei Yi, do you want to come along?”

Luo Lia Kun, “She is tired, and so it would not be a good idea for her to participate in any kind of mental trial.”

“Actually, I’m perfectly fine. It’s only physical stuff, so if this is related to the mind, I’m sure I can handle it,” Wei Yi stepped in – literally and not – since they did not appear to realise that they were still right next to her, “What’s this mental trial thing about?”

“It’s something that we’ve been able to obtain while you were out. They are similar to jade slips, but instead of holding information, they are capable of challenging your mind like a slip might. If you’ve ever encountered a functioning fragment of a jade slip in the past, whether it was part of a permanent or one-time-use slip, you might be familiar with the way it overloads your mind with information if you absorb it recklessly.”

“Not too familiar, but I can certainly imagine it. I’ll go, then.”

“Very well. Also unlike temporary jade slips, these do not have limited uses, so anyone can use them so long as they aren’t worried about their brain exploding from too much stress. If it feels like that might happen, do not keep using the mental trials,” Luo Lia Kun instructed her, “Do you understand that?”

“Sure, sure. Where are they, and how many are there? Can I do them multiple times in a row, or do I need to pick different ones each time?”

“…” there were clearly many things that the vice-leader of both the Remnants of Yin and the Brotherhood of Power wished to say, but seeing as Wei Yi had obviously not been listening to her from the start, and had her own ideas of what she could and couldn’t manage, she felt like she had no choice but to give up, hoping that the first trial she takes would convince her that this was a bad idea.

Perhaps the dim-wittedness would prove to be a boon, and somehow allow her to bypass the extreme mental stress that equated to learning the contents of a jade slip in one moment, allowing her to survive for another day.

Meanwhile, those on the side that had some familiarity with Wei Yi’s more knowledgeable and intelligent side, mainly Chao Ru and Zhi Qiu Ya, were of the opinion that she was actually taking the situation exactly as she should. Her mind was clearly capable of handling a lot of information quickly, as made obvious by the creation of Chao Ru’s new training technique and her rapid comprehension of Zhi Qiu Ya’s condition and possible solution of it. For someone like that, it would hardly be impossible to go through several mental trials, although they weren’t very familiar with the exact difficulty of the trial.

Only Wei Yi understood the true challenge that it would present to anyone but her, and thus she made sure to make it seem like an unreasonable matter for anyone but her.

Then again, she had no idea whether the people around her had some secret talent that resembled her own, not that she had a perfect understanding of that, either. All of the information about the effects of the jade slips on others was mostly from Great Dark and Great Light, or the twin halves of Great Earth, who had inadvertently or otherwise inserted malicious will into their own jade slips, so they were hardly the most reliable sources out there.

Experimenting on others would clear this up really quickly, but she lacked both suitable test subjects that she wouldn’t mind losing and jade slips with which to test them, although if she was able to pocket some of the mental tests, that would likely solve both that problem and the issue of teaching her captive subjects more and more with each jade slip they successfully manage to withstand, making it easier and easier for them to resist her actions and eventually escape. She wouldn’t give anyone the reason nor power to do the same that she was currently doing to the Greats, as that would just be foolish.

With Luo Lia Kun in the lead, their small group was brought to one of the many rooms within the building, one that had previously been mostly unoccupied save for a table and a few chairs. Now, it contained a large number of small square tables atop which lay items that resembled jade slips, but clearly differed significantly.

It wasn’t a clear visual difference, nor even one relating to energy, but one of instinct. When looking upon the empty surface of the mental tests, it immediately conveyed a feeling of emptiness and of the void. Not even the most ignorant and foolish of bandits seeking to steal knowledge from somewhere would assume these to contain it, although they may be convinced that it could steal knowledge from others…

‘No, that doesn’t seem to be an ability that these things possess. Jade slips have to be manufactured carefully and be filled with information before they can be used at all, so these wouldn’t have the ability to actively take in knowledge from others unless these are far more advanced than they should be.’

The random thought was rather wild and unlikely, as was often the case for unprompted, unconsidered thoughts, but it did remind her to be cautious of these things, no matter how useful they may be. Before she could use a single one herself, she would naturally need to see several other people using it, which wouldn’t be difficult to achieve if she pretended to be hesitant and stood at the back, or if she claimed that she didn’t know how to reach out with one’s spiritual perception and inspect the mental test slips.

For someone like Luo Lia Kun, it might even serve to boost her confidence in being able to do whatever she likes around Wei Yi, since someone who can’t even reach out with spiritual perception can’t possibly know everything that she does around her, can she? It would be revealed as a rather unlikely thing the moment she listened to any of her roommates, but it wouldn’t hurt her no matter what.

At worst, such a claim could be dismissed as a poor joke and nothing more.

“Alright, there they are. You’ll be the first ones testing them, so be careful, but they certainly do function, and will not destroy your head if you are careful and reasonable. They’re all of a similar level, and their effects should last for a few minutes before you are able to move, so don’t be worried if you suddenly come to with a dry mouth and tired limbs,” Luo Lia Kun said, presenting the test slips to them, “I’ll be watching over you for now, then, after a while, I’ll go and get some more people to try these while getting someone else to keep watch on you, someone who knows what they’re doing when it comes to physical and mental health.”

“I hope you’re not describing either of those insane creatures that sleep below us,” Zhi Qiu Ya muttered, earning a shake of the head from the vice-leader.

“No, I am not. I would not entrust the safety of our organisation with those two. Now, go on.”

She waved her hand towards the many test slips while leaning against the back wall of the room. Some people rushed to a mental test slip right away, others hesitated, and Wei Yi did the latter by pretending to look around for some particular slip to make use of, even though she and most people here should be well aware that the contents of emptiness wouldn’t differ from slip to slip, not unless they had been misled by Luo Lia Kun.

Still, she did not need to wait long for some people to plunge into the test slips with their spiritual perception, at which point their eyes quickly became hazy and still, as if their very consciousness left their bodies.

Within them, she was able to notice a great degree of pressure upon the mind and their mental energy, with some enduring it far better than others. It could be likened to a large hammer being brought down upon something that could be as fragile as a precious pot at one time, and as tough as a fortress at another. Those that had not been ready generally fared worse than those that were.

Fortunately, that is all that it appeared to be. There was no hidden point within the hammer through which knowledge could be siphoned away, nor was there any hint of any kind of energy travelling from the cultivator towards the slip. The moment that they touched it with their spiritual perception and were put in a daze while processing the lack of information that they had just obtained, their spiritual perception withdrew, whether instinctively or otherwise, and there was no damage nor corruptive influence upon it.

All of that still couldn’t guarantee her safety, but she was confident regarding her own mind, and so took a step forward and reached out with a wisp of spiritual perception.

The moment that she touched the slip, she immediately felt a sense of relief, as if she had just gone through some cumbersome and complex trial, and it took her a moment to realise that the effects of the slip ended before they could even be felt by her, a little like what she expected due to her comprehension speed likely having been boosted over the years by spiritual will cultivation.

She did not have much time to ponder that, however, as she found her mind being drawn elsewhere instead – the Realm of Potential. It beckoned her, but it did not swallow her up like last time, only threatening to do so soon if she did not enter. Due to her not being willing to reveal herself just yet, she decided that spending some time in there would act much like her being consumed by the mental test slip, so she went along with this unsubtle invitation and decided to see the reason for it.

Quickly, her consciousness appeared within the familiar void, with the book once more appearing at an appropriate level for easy reading, in the same orientation and position as the first time that she saw it. However, she could tell that it had changed.

Opening the book to the first page revealed the same text as before, but the second now contained words that it previously did not.

‘… from there, I headed to the north, rising by a thousand feet the moment that it was appropriate. This was my first commercial flight, and I wasn’t going to ruin my chances now…’ the passage was cut off on both ends, rather blatantly in fact, but that wasn’t what caught her attention as much as the contents themselves. For whatever reason, she could almost recall seeing something exactly like what was being described, which hardly made much sense given that she had never been part of any kind of commercial flight.

However, there was one person that would have obviously known about this.

‘The otherworldly demon who held the Realm of Potential left this behind? No… perhaps it was created from the last spark of his memories, and the reason that I remember it is due to something that he did the first time I was in the Realm of Potential?’ she pondered, trying to recall that time, ‘I was definitely in there longer than an instant, but I still cannot recall a fucking thing…’

This strange ignorance bothered her quite a lot, given that her primary strength at the moment was the great amount of knowledge that she had been able to acquire and use to get to where she is now. It either meant that her memory had failed her at that time, or that something happened that was able to affect even her own mind, without her noticing a single thing through the Ascendant’s Library or any other technique or factor.

Unfortunately, it was rather difficult to comprehend the matters of the mind, so all she could do then, and now, was follow the clues that she did have.

‘I specifically received a series of directions, almost. Perhaps it is trying to lead me somewhere? If so, I need to get however much more information I require before setting out, since I seem to reappear near the book every time – or perhaps it reappears near me, confusing matters further,’ she closed the book, placed it back exactly where it had been, then left the Realm of Potential, ‘I’ll need to do more tests, if it will help, and figure out what this is all about.’

Due to the temporal dilation of the prison realm affecting the Realm of Potential, she had barely been in there for a few moments in reality, so she kept up the façade of being stunned by the mental test slip for a minute before supposedly breaking out.

Through this particular timing, she hoped to show a level of ability that was certainly above the common folk, but that wouldn’t make her seem entirely abnormal in the eyes of any that were observing her at the moment, like her true, instant completion of the test would have. Hopefully, such actions wouldn’t encourage some third insane researcher to appear.

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