Chapter 282: V4C63: Analysis

Before Jian Hongchao could explode, resulting in all of her energy surging out and rampaging in the area around her and possibly leading to a significant degree of damage being dealt to the terrain and to Wei Yi herself, the Ascendant manifested her planar energy and physique energy alike to surround the body of the otherworldly demon, tearing into her before the woman’s own energy could.

She added in her bloodline power, and with all of them together, she fed upon the energy contained within the demon’s body, feeding upon every little drop that she could as they attempted to escape, imbuing herself with the power that was contained within each one. Despite the otherworldly demon only being in the fourth realm when it came to her planar energy, and only at the second and first when it came to her bloodline power and physique energy, the absolute density of the latter two in particular was absolutely immense.

One after another, she felt physique ability after physique ability awakening within her. Hidden Passage, Past’s Call, Living Conduit, Blood Refinement, Swallowing Organ, Beaming Transience, Displaced Sanity, Mortal Deity and more reinforced all of the power that she already had.

The one to affect her the most was the Deepened Pool physique, which had a single ability that manifested upon the awakening of the physique within a body. It would drain one’s current strength and ability, causing it to decline by a significant extent while developing one’s potential and the depth of one’s energy pool, permitting it to then be utilized to create a far stronger foundation and cultivation for oneself.

In her case, just as certain particularly unusual physique abilities were altered by the Yin-Yang Ascendant, the Deepened Pool physique was also altered to be lessened in its effects, causing it to drain the energy that she currently had instead of her current cultivation. It sapped more and more of her planar energy, physique energy, mental energies and bloodline power, and once they nearly dried up within her body, the process ceased. Her planar pool had grown by half, her meridians had expanded, and her mental domain had changed too, although it was changed in the strangest way.

Her domain grew similarly, but it already had a clear structure and shape, meaning that as it grew, it effectively needed to scale everything up at the same time.

The result was odd, but it was not one that she was able to concern herself with at that immediate moment, although she did believe that it would be resolved with sufficient ease the moment that the growth of the mental domain was instead translated to energy density and quality. As that energy flooded her, and each of her energies was able to acquire some traits from the otherworldly demon, she also acquired some of the memories that were at the forefront of her mind.

She saw the hooded man speaking, his words being lost within the last memories of the demon. Her position shifted around a lot as a lot of events that didn’t seem to hold as much value in her mind passed by, freezing on certain points around the hideout of the Blood-tinged Church.

There had been a smaller lab somewhere to the side of where the otherworldly demon had emerged from, wherein some further experiments had been done to her blood, and an armoury that could be accessed if one kept going towards a dim red light in one of the corridors. Both were filled with blood, and were focused upon it, with every weapon in the latter chamber being either made with, covered in, or somehow focused around blood, to the point that one had to ask whether the Blood-tinged Church had any reason left in their heads, or if they were in as bad a state as the Corruptor’s Enclave, where each one of them constantly heard whispers.

Within some of the rooms, she could see more figures in robes that were marked by garbled and mangled characters, matching none of the languages that she was able to pull out of her own memory, nor the remnants of the otherworldly demon’s mind, making her more concerned about their meaning and nature. If they were merely some kind of code, that would be one thing, but if they were intended to trap and affect the mind, then that would be another and far more dangerous matter.

That was not what caught her interest the most at that moment, however. Unlike the memories that had been solely placed into her mind through the Realm of Potential, which were difficult to deal with and recall in full, the things that she personally acquired would remain within her mental domain for as long as they needed to, so she could attempt to decode the symbols whenever she wanted to.

Rather than that, she was most interested in the final memory that she was able to pull out of the otherworldly demon’s mind – rather, the last two memories that blurred together.

The first half was almost certain to be something from the world she came from, just barely managing to pull through whatever had prevented her from remembering her true name. There were buildings that rose to the skies, with glass completely covering each wall in sight, and the road was made of some kind of black material with marks down the middle, with various lines possibly meaning different things. It was difficult to tell that without the people or entities that were intended to make use of the lines doing so within the memory, as it had no other figures present within the memory, not even the person that would need to be observing it to be able to remember it.

It was akin to a ghost world, where the people that had lived there all vanished without any obvious cause. Such a sight might have been rather shocking had this been any district of Yi City, or Paragon, but in this strange wasteland, it was almost fitting.

‘That place isn’t entirely unfamiliar, although I still don’t know why anyone would live in such a place. It is similar to the desert fortress that we are forced to occupy, but that is a fortress meant for survival, not aesthetics or pleasure. Frankly, if I did have the option to modify the look of Paragon, I would probably do so, but I am also not the expert on visuals and design, so I would need to call the Shun District’s experts for aid on that,’ she thought as she stored that scene in her mind and moved onto the other one.

This one was certainly from the Planar Continents, although she was not familiar with the surroundings. She was clear on that as the effect of planar energy on the surroundings, as well as the minor tactile sensations that the memory was able to retain, and thus she paid the most attention to the minor glimpse of light that she did have within that memory.

All that she was able to see was a small opening within some kind of cave, and the sun through it, shining down into the underground region. The sun was framed by two mountains that stood near the coast, as the slight glimpse of the sun’s shine from the water, as well as a hint of the blue colour that was inherent to it. They looked to be covered in a grassy green, and their peaks were sharp and almost unnatural in appearance, although many landmarks in the world weren’t entirely natural.

In fact, most weren’t, since they were caused by fights between the peak experts of generations past.

‘I don’t recall this mountain, but it should be in the Central Plains or some kind of spatial realm,’ Wei Yi deemed, storing that sight into her mental domain to study it later and compare any twin mountains that she could come across in the future to try and match the sight to reality, ‘In that case, we will approach it soon enough on our campaign, and if this is near any of the districts, then it shall be found and searched. This is likely to be the place where the Blood-tinged Church is hiding, unless there was a major gap between her memories.’

The memories receded, and so did Wei Yi’s energy, revealing the only thing that was able to endure all of her power – the Purifier’s Seal, and the azure light within.

As one fell to the ground, the other shot out of it and attempted to soar into her.

There was hardly any need to hesitate, nor for her to personally do anything. With the power of the fifth realm, the Truth of the Universe was able to arrange itself into the repelling array in moments and activated just before the azure light could come into contact with her, prompting it to freeze in place before shooting off into the distance, disappearing to a world unseen.

Her character fragments resumed their earlier arrangement, with it becoming less and less stable with each stage that she attained without relying on their exact techniques, and although they looked as drained as they usually would be, it seemed that the increase in her realm was indeed able to substitute a small amount of the energy that was required for them to function. Then again, there was also the possibility that the increase in the world’s energy density had also benefitted them, although the most likely possibility was that the two combined ensured that they would not be sapped entirely by a single activation.

It was still insufficient for a second usage in a short period of time, but the cooldown period would be shorter as a result.

Just as the Purifier’s Seal was about to touch the ground, Wei Yi grabbed it out of the air, straightening her posture and feeling the strange sensation of touching something that shouldn’t exist within this world.

Much like the other otherworldly gifts, this one quickly formed a link with her, seeming to partially meld with her body. She could still throw it away if she wished, but she would be able to return it to herself whenever she wanted to. In addition, it felt like she would be able to make use of the properties of the Purifier’s Seal even without bringing it out of her, although that did make her question why Jian Hongchao- no, the otherworldly demon without a name had failed to make use of such a function.

One thing that she knew was that the item in her possession was now likely to be weaker than the original, since it was no longer supported by an azure light, so it would simply not make sense for her to have obtained a version that was superior to the one held by the otherworldly demon.. That meant that she must have been able to make use of the same ability, but did not.

‘Could she have failed to consider this even being an option? The people from the other world, or worlds, are rather strange about certain things,’ she noted, hiding the Purifier’s Seal within some unseen space within her body, near her dantian and yet infinitely far from it, ‘Doesn’t matter. All of this has brought some things to my attention, and made it clear that I need to take action quickly if I am to prevent things like this from happening, as well as to guarantee that certain factions and powers do not get too powerful while I am attempting to unify Yi City into a cohesive whole once more. That means that I will need to intrude upon Luo Na’s introductory speech.’

She quickly headed back to the new Matriarch’s residence, having already picked up the large quantities of anchor energy from the demon and the Church member.

On her way there, she found that many of the people were heading towards the Ancestral Hall of the Luo District, so she was naturally able to guess that Luo Na had decided to hurry things along. This suited her just fine, especially since the other two districts happened to have their spatial stabilisation points near to the Ancestral Hall. If she went right there, she might even come across that point and have the chance to make her own entry a little more spectacular.

With the speed of the fifth realm, amplified by an absolutely excessive amount of physique abilities, combined with quite a few bloodlines that she had managed to acquire from the otherworldly demon without the ability to properly identify them due to the degree of their distillation, she made it to the Ancestral Hall far earlier than any of the common people, even including some of the experts mixed in with those in the first and second realms. The Ascendant located a spot that looked akin to the ones in the other districts, and scanned it with her spiritual perception, quickly finding traces of the stabilisation point that she was searching for.

From there, finding the point and then activating it was easy, although doing so covertly was a little more challenging. To ensure that she wasn’t noticed and suspected of something untoward before she had a chance to clarify the situation, she filled the point with enough of her energy to bring it to the brink, and left it like that.

After that, she quickly caught Luo Na with her outstretched perception, and headed over.

“… and so, we shall be supporting the Ascendant’s Arbiters, as well as anything that they’re planning for that doesn’t simply throw away our lives. Some of you may not be so keen on this but do spare your infighting until the conclusion of the conflict,” she was saying as Wei Yi approached.

Luo Long Meng sighed, but she did nod her head, “We’ve already fought beside you. It’s a little late for us to try anything else, especially now that you are the seventh realm.”

“Good, then-”

“Sorry for the interruption, but I need to say something,” the Ascendant entered then, to the shock of all but Luo Na, whose divine sense was able to see through the rudimentary stealth methods that she had employed, “No issues? Good. I have something that I need to say during your… inauguration? Yes, I suppose we could call it that… It is important, and will be accompanied by the opening of the link to the other districts. If you have any objections, they should be voiced right away.”

“Do we have your permission to block the spatial gateway, or is that something your vision of Yi City requires?”

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“Only if necessary, and never for the Arbiters, at least not while the Greats are out there. Also, do make sure to mention the name of the Great Families as often as you can, just to get everyone saying it. Imagining what they must be thinking is rather fun, and… hey, do you think we can have some kind of celebration named after them, just to piss them off?”

“Your tone is… prone to fluctuation, I see.”

“Just trying to get over a few things, so don’t mind me. We can discuss all of that later, and should implement it within all of the districts to ensure greater unity between us, so it is best if we only concern ourselves with it at a later time.”

“That I agree with. As we can communicate via our energy, and since I am capable at handling several matters at once, I wouldn’t mind if you enter whenever you see fit, although I will finish whatever sentence or thought I am trying to express before allowing you to intrude. Otherwise, it might give the wrong impression of the status of a Matriarch in comparison to the Ascendant, and that simply wouldn’t’ do.”

“Uh-huh. If I do end up as a Master of Yi City, I could always remind you of those words when I want you to do something for me.”

“In that case, you may do so,” Luo Na said calmly.

The two of them shrugged, leaving the guardians rather confused about their actions and intentions. They had obviously never seen how the original Master of Yi City had interacted with the Patriarchs of his city, but they did not imagine that it was anything like this. There should have been some degree of formality and respect in ancient times, not random exclamations.

“Anything else?” Wei Yi asked, “If not, you can go on.”

“No, nothing else. I will proceed, and you may do as you like… Actually, if you could watch out for any unexpected enemies that might appear, then I would be grateful.”

“I’d do that anyway. If someone strong enough to defeat you, or otherwise endanger you, was to suddenly appear, then it would be rather unfortunate for us all,” the Ascendant said, nodding and turning away, “I’ll get going. If you do say anything about me, do be nice.”

She left before anyone else had the chance to speak, heading out into the crowd with some of her stealth methods to cover her presence. As she did not need to intrude in the inauguration of the new Matriarch for a little while, she instead focused upon the many physiques that she had integrated into her Yin-Yang Ascendant energy, since she had felt the many different abilities coursing through her and didn’t want to accidentally make use of one without fully comprehending it, resulting in some bad consequences.

The Moon’s Regalia required the least thought, as did the Soothing Moon physique. They were nearly equivalent to their yang counterparts, so all that would change was that she would no longer need to substitute them with the mixture of her killing intent and physique energy, as she had done prior to this.

Silver Form was also similar, but as she had seen from the otherworldly demon, the layer of silver would be separate from her actual skin and would thus be an additional layer of protection that would also prevent her enemies from landing hits without repercussions. Mortal Deity would make it easier for her to circulate her energy outside of the meridians, and did not apply the weakening effect upon her own meridians, so it gave her the best of both the Mortal Deity and Immortal Mortal physiques.

Then, Displaced Sanity functioned alongside her Concentrated Humanity, so she would be able to manifest either of the vortexes that the two physique abilities could produce.

Wei Yi had experienced the Beaming Transience physique already, and she would certainly be making use of it to add onto her protective layers against unwanted inspection. She wasn’t too shy about most of the things in her body, since the typical mind seemed to struggle with perceiving any of her otherworldly gifts and the five meridian networks unless they were aware of it – something that did make her curious about the exact nature of spiritual perception and the way in which it inspected the world around her – and the fact that she had a dick was already known to some, and would undoubtedly spread further, but if she ever needed to hide something from a powerful foe, this would be incredibly beneficial in obscuring things from them.

Much like the Lion’s Roar technique was greatly related to the Lion’s Roar physique, the Mindful Eating Art was partly based on the Swallowing Organ physique. As one might be able to guess, there was quite a difference, but both were based around consumption and feeding, with the Swallowing Organ physique ability allowing for the devouring of the vast majority of things, even the kinds of items that aren’t typically considered food. Certain types of metals and ores, soil, wood, bones and more would suddenly be edible, and yet it was the least useful one for her due to her not typically eating.

The Blood Refinement physique was focused around the draining of blood and refining it into vitality, or lifeforce, and it was the yin variant of the Vitality Siphon physique, with it being one that made the most sense to originate from a creation of the Blood-tinged Church.

Living Conduit functioned similarly to the Energy Pylon physique, although it bypassed the cultivator as the physique dispersed vitality and was thus another weaker version of the yang equivalent, at least in her eyes. That was unfortunate, but the sheer quantity of physiques that she had absorbed brought her a good way to advancing her current stage, with it requiring only a bit of her own effort and time investment to rise a few stages without much effort.

Past’s Call hardly needed to be explained, the Muted Whisper physique offered a method of communication that could traverse long distances without being heard by anyone other than the intended recipient, Hidden Passage had already been utilised by the otherworldly demon, Worldly Declination was something that permitted the weakening of foes and energy around the cultivator. Most of them were simple enough, and did not require much further explanation, and neither did Frozen Step nor Crushing Frost, with the latter doing little more than enhancing one’s physiques attacks with more power.

She would have loved to have received the physique ability that was partially correlated to the Shaper’s Grasp, which was called Elder Watcher, but it seemed that the otherworldly demon did not have that, or the vast majority of other physiques that she was interested in acquiring. Something like Clairvoyance, Spirit Mirage or Dreadful Possession, with the latter of the two being abilities that she had definitely seen within the Kong Prison Realm during her earlier years in there, would have assisted her abilities in ways that benefitted her greatly.

Both Spirit Mirage and Dreadful Possession would have improved her ability to manifest and control the Red Phantom Flood, as both partly split the mind in order to be able to control several bodies at once. The former in particular was extremely powerful at that, as she had seen from the warlord that had used it.

‘It would be great if I got any of those, but, again, I seem to be getting a little greedy. There is only so much that I can actually acquire from a single person, and the fact that she had that many physiques is already more than enough,’ Wei Yi concluded, ‘Instead of this nonsense, let’s have a look at what Luo Na is going to do. I’m interested in the kind of thing that she will do, since she seems to be a rather competent figure when in a one on one situation. When it comes to her public speaking, however, anything could happen.’

There was a certain history of people with strengths that were focused on very particular fields, like a master warrior knowing nothing about diplomacy or a gardener having no ability to fight, and this was hardly unusual. One might cultivate and gain the ability to survive illness, powerful blows, live longer and be stronger, but that did not mean that one acquired absolutely everything that one could ever want from their lives. The particular methods that relied the most on one’s mind and knowledge, and the various very specific skills and understandings that not everyone could acquire, couldn’t be sped along with cultivation, so if one didn’t have the knowledge, experience, or innate gift to speak well before others, it wouldn’t matter whether one was in the first realm or ninth – they would still struggle until they acquired the required skills.

To put it in a vastly simpler statement, Luo Na may not have had much experience speaking before others.

‘If so, I expect that she will strive to stand somewhere further away from the crowd, perhaps on that balcony that the Ancestral Hall of this district has,’ Wei Yi thought, looking up towards that part of the hall, ‘Either way, I can enter at any time, and do anything I like, especially since people would be unlikely to protest the ability to cross distances that typically take a day or more within an instant.’

That was the power of exclusivity, in a way. By having something that no other faction could offer, the Arbiters could easily dominate quite a few groups just by offering them access to the spatial gateways, or perhaps the Endless Monolith in the middle of Paragon, or the like. Had there been no conflict between them and the Great Families, some of the districts may have been even more keen to join them, especially if it would allow them to make use of the gateways to invade some of their foes without warning and thus expand their territories.

Perhaps the Xin and Ling families would be most eager to take advantage of such things.

However, she had no more time to guess randomly, or consider worlds that she would rather be in, as Luo Na did finally appear, choosing to do so from the doors at the ground rather than the balcony.

The doors of the Luo Ancestral Hall were opened by the two youthful figures amongst the guardians, Luo Long Meng and Luo Ru Qiu. Luo Na emerged after them, then the other three guardians, after whom the two younger ones shut the doors and formed a line before them. They lowered their heads and subdued their auras as to prevent the attention from being taken by them rather than the true star of the show, so to speak.

Frankly, they hardly needed to do so, as Luo Na was not someone that required that degree of aid.

With her current cultivation, a simple release of her aura caused all eyes to be on her, with her flaming light surging out of the body even without requiring her planar energy to pass beyond her body. In addition, she was not an unknown figure, and thus her presence quickly caught the attention of those that had previously done any business with her or happened to be aware of her reputation.

A single step could manifest an enormous degree of energy from the world, and, from the stage, Wei Yi could see the chains around her quake just a little bit. She smiled as she saw that, even if it wasn’t an exact manipulation of the Law of the world. It still showed an attempt to learn.

‘I don’t think that she will be able to complete her own branch of the Dao of Law through that alone, though. She simply uses her strength to influence the world around her, and while that does align with some of the nature of Law, it is akin to taking a dozen steps around a simple floor tile just to make a little progress in a tunnel… or something of the sort. I am sure I have had better comparisons than that,’ she thought, folding her arms as she paid attention to what the woman would do next, ‘Either way, having a stronger ally is always good, especially when their strength can be negated by my own.’

That was one of the strengths and Laws of cultivation as a whole – if one person had a second realm flame, and the second had a fifth realm flame, the latter should win in all but the most exceptional circumstances. Since she had the power of the Dao of Law at the Great Stride stage, and may very well have been the one to advance it the most since the heaven’s will itself, she would easily be able to subdue or subvert any attempts to use Law against her.

For that reason, she was not concerned in the slightest, and instead just spent her time listening.

At the same time, she had already made a few preparations for the very near future, so she had little else to worry about.

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