Chapter 295: V4C76: Repairs and Election

She was able to figure out a number of things from the network in moments, but she put that to the back of her immediate priorities as she still had a sea of rubble around herself, one that was now being looked at not just by the people of the Ping District, but also by those at the other gateways. If she just left that as it was, she would hardly receive the kind of attention she needed.

Instead, she focused the energy that she had collected after the breakthrough and spread it out all over the district, making use of the additional stabilisation of the gateway and the Yi City Web to further her own energy manipulation range while enhancing all of these aspects with the Conqueror’s Eye, resulting in the entire ruined portion of the district being covered with the blackened crimson layer of her influence. Every stone, piece of wood, torn and ripped stretch of cloth and so on were enveloped by it, and all of these things began to tremble just a little bit.

“Now, if I just try and reverse things, I will be wasting my own energy. The power of the supernova does not need to be repeated in order to correct this, nor would the previous layout be the most optimal. Endless Calculation can generate a better layout based on mathematical probability alone, but the correction of the current situation should be done by… two options jump out. Destruction or repositioning,” Wei Yi muttered to herself, “Shattering all of this to dust could work, but the resulting structural stability… Sarah might be able to work with it, since her otherworldly gift should be able to convert any form of stone to something useful, but I would rather not bring her to work on other territories for now. However, repositioning is also troublesome, since lifting this much is…”

As soon as she got onto that, she paused. There was no reason to lift everything, by hand or with her energy, when she had enough influence over the Dao of Law to will a road to be formed from the Dimensional Domain all the way to the Ping District and survive. What she needed was for the objects to rise, but nothing guaranteed that this would be easier or simpler than modifying the very direction in which objects fell.

After all, just as the principle of objects moving once an appropriate degree of energy was exerted onto them was law, so was the fact that everything was bound by gravity. Every piece of rubble on the ground should, in theory, be able to move the moment that the ground beneath disappeared, as the force would be acting upon it indefinitely, so to rotate that force and instead make them fall upwards wasn’t impossible. In fact, she didn’t even need to modify everything from the ground to the cosmos in order to make this happen – instead, creating an area of upward gravity that congregates into a balanced gravity, above which downward gravity persists, might be significantly more feasible than someone else in her present realm might imagine. At that point, the only question would be whether to break the rubble apart prior to attempting this.

While there should be no benefit to doing so in terms of modifying gravity, she considered it for a moment and concluded that it would be best to crush it into smaller pieces that could be worked with more easily.

She raised her left hand and formed it into a fist, pausing for a moment as she focused on every part of the process that she was about to attempt. At the same time as breaking the rocks, she would allow the shockwave of the strike to carry her Imposition of Law, as her technique of modifying nature could be labelled, and thus raise them according to her desire.

‘Collapsing Cavern Fist is a technique of the Fist and Hand Dao, both of which are at the Initial Accomplishment stage. It is also a form of the Earth Dao, which is at Initial Accomplishment as well, and of the Dao of the Elements at Minor Achievement, which are part of the Planar Dao, which is at the Great Stride stage. In total – not to forget the Ascendant’s Combat Dao, which is at Initial Accomplishment – there are nine stages added to the technique,’ she suppressed the urge to grin like a fool, ‘Even though it is Uninitiated due to me never practising it explicitly, it still reaches the Fifth Stage.’

That was if she was just to strike down casually, without bothering to infuse it with the power of Law. With it, there were another three stages added on top of that, before the intrinsic principles of the Dao of Law were even considered. In other words, as she casually raised her hand and prepared to bring it down, she was invoking a technique with a power that some of those in the eighth and ninth stages might never have reached.

Aware that she wouldn’t be able to suppress a silly expression for much longer, she raised it as far as necessary before slamming it down, striking the air before her.

‘This could also be said to be a form of inscription, array arrangement or blacksmithing, if I was to push it… If nothing else, this teaches me that Dao are not something that should be limited by the power of a single path, but rather something that grows exponentially with every new branch and fork I comprehend. The Planar Dao includes bloodline power, physique energy and killing will, just to name a few things… I comprehend all of them to some small degree, and with them, my power-’ right before the force encompassed within her strike could explode, her mind suddenly reached out for more and more Dao and thus the force grew alongside their number. In one moment, it was as if the strike changed from the small fire of a match to that of a lighthouse overseeing the world – the sun itself.

The resulting blast was strangely quiet, but it was not unimpressive to behold. With just one strike, an enormous network of cracks and tears spread out throughout the fragments of rubble covering the district. Each piece of useless material cracked apart into smaller and smaller chunks, with the web gaining more and more individual lines the further out it went to compensate for the expansion.

Every piece that was struck and broken was thrown into the air, or so it seemed to the onlookers, but as they reached a certain zenith in the air, they did not fall back down as they expected. Instead, the chunks and pieces bounced up and down for a few moments, reaching an odd equilibrium within the empty air as if they were floating in water rather than the transparent substance that they had gotten used to.

An otherworldly demon might have been able to explain that there was more to air and water than met the eye, which many of the native population could confirm due to their own comprehension of the primary states of matter via their planar energy, but they wouldn’t have an explanation for this spectacle. In fact, one figure that had thought about attempting to share some of their knowledge with those gathered beside them, but they found themselves stunned as they beheld the various ruined pieces of homes and shops rise in a smooth wave, emanating from the glowing centre, with the stones and chunks of wood and so on bobbing up and down in sequence before stabilising.

This wave rapidly rushed towards the outer region of the Ping District, where the people reacted either by standing still due to their sheer amazement at this phenomenon, while other hastened back to avoid being struck, feeling rather concerned that a force this powerful could easily strike them all down.

Luckily for them, even if Wei Yi did want to do this, she was already feeling herself being pushed to the limit, with many of her internal organs rupturing and tearing themselves apart as if this was the only thing they knew how to do as of late. If she was to go a little further, the diameter wouldn’t increase all that greatly, but the area that she was affecting would be multiplied significantly, and her body might outright shut down if she wasn’t careful enough. She made sure to restrain the wave, so that just as it reached the last bits of rubble, it would stop.

That was made easier by the fact that the rubble began or ended – depending on how you looked at it – at the edge of the Subterranean Shell manifestation at the time of the battle in the district, and so it was in a perfect circle around her, with everything beyond it remaining mostly stable and sound save for the few buildings shaken by the supernova.

The wave of rising rocks reached that edge and ceased, with a few of the pieces and chunks that had slightly gone over that edge as they fell ending up outside of the full field of altered gravity, allowing them to fall out after a moment of bobbing. However, that did not change the reaction of the people that saw this, for even the flaws at the end of the process couldn’t be compared to the overall result before them.

An enormous area that had previously been covered in broken pieces of their former homes, the shops that they had visited from time to time, and the structures in which the many gangs and criminal organisations of the district had resided and gathered, was suddenly cleansed of it all. They did not see fully flat land before them, as the uneven terrain of the region combined with the holes where the former district-wide array had been made that impossible, but they were able to see something far more significant than that. In place of the destruction, there was the potential for reconstruction, and for improvement.

They no longer stood side by side with the worst of the district’s people, and if they didn’t allow for that kind of activity to rise once more, they would never have to see them here again.

With the old removed, they could vastly enhance the foundation, and make use of it to create a Ping District that could stand up to the Yi District of the past, to the legendary place where even the greatest of people would be insignificant in comparison to the sheer might and glory of the district where the Master of Yi City spent most of his time.

“People of the Ping District, if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to say a few things,” a voice reached out to all of them, carried underneath the floating rubble and above the free terrain, “My name is Wei Yi, and I am the Ascendant that leads the Ascendant’s Arbiters, as well as the one that had brought the Luo, Chao and Bai Districts here with the intention of removing the overwhelming plague of the thieves and assassins that had grown within this district. I had not intended to cause such excessive destruction, however.”

The people she was addressing glanced to one another, various thoughts on their minds. Some were in agreement with her actions, having suffered greatly at the hands of the thugs that populated the district, whereas others had some ability to endure them or were rather upset by the damage that she had ended up causing with her invasion. That anger was mitigated somewhat by what appeared to be an effort to assist in the repair process, but they were curious what she would say.

Wei Yi knew this, so she paused for a moment and then began once more.

“I have activated the spatial stabilisation points in the centre of the district, and through it you may come to any of the three connected districts in an instant. If you no longer wish to reside here, you may leave at any time, and I, at the very least, shall not stop you,” she stated, proceeding immediately so that some of the people did not get the wrong impression that she was trying to get them out of the district, “That being said, I do not wish to throw this place away and let it become ruined like the Kong District. There is a vast degree of potential in the people here, and I believe that it is about time that you were able to display it to the world.

“For that reason, builders and workers from the three districts I had mentioned, as well as a few people from my own faction, shall come and assist in the reconstruction of the district. With the previous structures cleared, a new district may be built in their place, and I shall personally ensure that the Ping Ancestral Hall is rebuilt with the positive deeds of the Ping family being stored within.”

That quickly changed the mood of some. The Bai District was not a district that was the most renowned for their builders, as that title could be claimed by the Chu family when it came to wooden structures or the Shun District’s well-trained servants in most construction efforts, but their group techniques guaranteed swiftness, precision and strength, allowing the creation of several buildings in mere hours. With the additional assistance of the strong Chao District’s people, and the talismans of the Luo, it wouldn’t be impossible to rebuild a street or two within a single day.

Furthermore, if they understood her correctly, it even seemed that the Ascendant had a plan for a different layout to their district that might be more efficient than the previous one. If that was the case, quite a few wouldn’t object to adhering to it.

“You can rest assured that by the end of the week, you will regain your homes, and that within two, your legacy would also be safely stored within the Ping Ancestral Hall. However, before that can occur, I would like to ask something of you: after this unfortunate disaster, in which the Patriarch perished, who would you hold up as a worthy replacement? Who do you believe to be a capable leader, regardless of their cultivation?”

The people looked to one another once more. Although it might seem like an easy question in smaller groups, or when there was a particularly exceptional figure amongst the masses, most of such figures had been part of vicious criminal groups that were no longer amongst them, clearly having been slain by the Arbiters and the forces of the other districts. Furthermore, turning to such people once more would simply plunge them back into the abyss from which they had just emerged, and that wouldn’t be something that anyone would wish for unless they had no other choice at all. It would be difficult to find someone.

Despite that, some found their thoughts turning to a certain figure that they knew, that was part of the Ping family, and that was unlikely to turn to the same kinds of deeds as the others.

“Ping Xiao Li!” a certain blue-haired man cried out, catching Wei Yi’s eye.

He was Lan Rongqi, and apart from appearing the previous day in one of the groups attempting to understand what was happening to the district while also seeking ways to weaken the Ping family’s activities, she recalled that he had been part of some resistance group that had shown itself to her when she had first visited the district.

As such, his vote was certainly an interesting one that caused her to look around in search of any other that would agree with him.

Quite quickly, someone else decided to shout out, “Ping Xiao Li! He was working to minimize the power of the thieves and thugs over all of us! If he isn’t a good choice, then we might as well not call this the Ping District any longer!”

From another part of the crowd, she also heard the words, “Ping Xiao Li!”

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She quickly stretched her spiritual perception out and locked onto all of the Ping family members still remaining within the crowd, and then found one that was being looked at by some of those standing near him, who had gained that attention after his name began to sound throughout the crowd. With that, a small journal within one of his inner pockets, and a token inside of another pocket, all of which bore his name, she was able to be mostly sure that this was the person that so many were interested in.

While her perception was looking through the crowd, she also noticed that some of those calling out his name looked at others in confusion, sharing glances with other groups as if to question the identity of the strange supporters. One thing that unified all of them were various tokens and symbols that were at once inconspicuous and recognisable, and with that she had an idea of who the man was.

“Ping Xiao Li, would you mind walking out and coming to the front? You don’t need to step into the field of rubble if you’re afraid of that, but it would make things clearer.”

Hearing her invitation, and seeing a number of those standing near them also looking towards the man, more and more of the crowd slowly turned to him, and what was rather interesting was that most of them seemed to get brighter expressions the moment that they noticed his presence. Even before he could get out of the crowd and come to the front, simply confirming the identity of the person being mentioned appeared to encourage and excite a number of ordinary people, with very few of the reactions looking to be purely from his appearance, which, as far as she was able to understand it, looked to be average for someone of the Ping family.

Although he did not look sure at first, when nearly everyone around him was calling out for him to come out, he had little choice but to go forward, the crowd parting before him as he made his way out of it.

Once he did emerge, allowing everyone with good eyesight in the crowd all around the district’s destroyed middle to see him, he took a few more steps out, although he stopped near the edge of the floating circle of rocks and didn’t attempt to progress. His gaze flicked over to the rocks above him several times, and one of his hands appeared to be preparing to use a defensive technique, so what worried him hardly needed to be explained.

“Ping Xiao Li, right? Would you mind explaining why so many people are calling out your name? I have been to your district once before, and I did not have the chance to meet you.”

“I… ahem,” he coughed as he remembered to make use of a voice amplification method so that his voice would reach her and those on the other side of the ruined centre, “I believe it is due to my activities prior to this. I had… I had founded a few groups with the intention of handling certain problems I felt were present within the district, but they weren’t able to do as much as I’d hoped.”

“Now, I’m not sure why you are being so cautious about this. If you are to be selected as a leader because of this, I think that it is very important that everyone understands exactly what it was that you were trying to achieve. Oh, and if you are worried about me, then you needn’t be. I’m almost sure that I already know exactly what you had been doing, and I don’t think I disapprove of the idea, at the very least,” she said, adding in a lowered voice, “Execution probably could use more work, but then again, that is the case with most things.”

The man looked around with a frown, but the more he looked, the more he seemed to realise something, causing his expression to lighten up. After inspecting everyone standing at the front of the encirclement, he breathed out and straightened his back.

“Before this, I had formed several groups to oppose the power of the many criminal groups that were present in the Ping District. Without many resources of my own, and with few allies amongst those who did have them, I ended up being unable to procure the necessary power for them to enact any of the changes I would have liked to see,” Ping Xiao Li finally admitted, “Then, you arrived and brought those we opposed down in one day.”

That made the many who had called out his name, but were then confused by such a large number of people willing to do the same, reach into their pockets and feel the various symbols within them. Their gazes lost their suspicion and were instead filled with a mixture of pride and comradery, for they understood that they had actually been part of very similar groups.

“Could you explain why you didn’t simply form one large organisation with this intent?”

“They would be found out – that was almost certain. All I could guarantee was that as few people at a time as possible would be discovered and dealt with by the family, and I did my best to separate the various groups into specific roles in specific parts of the district. If the chance of their arrest and the possibility of outright execution wasn’t present, I would have done exactly that, and perhaps I would have been able to do more with the people that did support me,” the man said, with quite a few looking to him with appreciation.

Considering the fact that most leaders of groups that opposed the Ping family would use pseudonyms and various false identities to avoid being caught, even he who gave out his own name could have avoided being caught simply due to the extreme plausibility that someone had used his name without his knowledge. Even the Ping family of yesterday wouldn’t have chosen to imprison or execute him for a coincidence, and so he could have been safe whether he had formed one organisation or a thousand.

Despite that, he did not, meaning that any one capture attempt by the Ping family would always result in fewer of them being caught. It was likely that many of those that could stand in the crowd and announce Ping Xiao Li’s name were only there for that reason.

“Good. In that case, would you like to make a case for why you should be the new Patriarch?”

He quickly looked down and shut his eyes, considering this option intently. Although he had attempted to do quite a lot, he was actually only in the fifth stage of Marked Core, with twenty-nine searing marks blazing on his core. At nearly six marks per stage, this wasn’t too poor of a display, but in comparison to the overwhelming power that the seventh realm seemed to possess, it wasn’t that great either.

“If you are worried about your realm, by the way, that can be amended. I don’t expect to send you up to the seventh realm in one go, but it is very easy to assist you in rising to the sixth realm. From there, all of the world will slowly find it much easier to ascend to higher realms, so it will not be as much of a problem as it may have been a year ago,” Wei Yi said suddenly, causing the man to look at her in surprise, “Assuming that wasn’t your problem, or not your only problem, then do feel free to express it to me.”

“No, that was one issue… Is that really possible? To bring someone up in realm in a short amount of time?” Ping Xiao Li questioned.

“Naturally. Anyone curious about it can visit the Luo District through the gateway and learn about the Luo Matriarch’s rise to the Oblivion Halo realm, but I’d advise doing that after a few safer paths through the rocks have been cleared. At the moment, it is possible to cause them to fall, and that wouldn’t be good for any of us,” she replied calmly.

“I can trust someone like yourself, so I won’t inquire further on that front. But… I don’t have the knowledge nor experience that the leadership of the entire district would require. I’ve only done minor things within the Ping family, and I hardly have the experience required to manage all of the work that will need to be done in order to prevent the district from collapsing under the current pressure,” the man admitted, “Without the Ancestral Hall, it also seems to be that we will not have enough time for me to learn such things before I will be required to act…”

“Perhaps that is why you had not achieved as much as you would have liked. Had you taken some risks and attempted to challenge yourself more, there might have been change… Not that I will criticize you for attempting to keep yourself safe, which is only reasonable. That being said, you do need to remember that if you never attempt something, you will never be able to learn,” Wei Yi looked to the rest of the crowd around her, “Any other candidates?”

With how uncertain they had been at first, it wasn’t surprising that there was no other name for them to select. She had not specified that they needed to select someone from the Ping family, but the traditional approach combined with the fact that the vast majority of the family had been eliminated as a result of their various misdeeds meant that there were very few choices for those that did wish to keep the bloodline of the Ping family in the position of leadership. Those that did not – and there were a few that she was able to detect with her spiritual perception, with some considering all kinds of usual leaders to occupy the position of Patriarch – did not bring their ideas forward because they knew that they would not be selected, and that they would just be wasting time.

Frankly, Wei Yi wouldn’t have been against one of them suggesting their favourite prostitute, if only to see what would happen, but it was the choice of the people of the district, not her own For now, their development was in their hands, and if they chose to leave it to one person, she wouldn’t stop them.

“Well, there can’t be much of a competition then, can there? Ping Xiao Li, please come forward,” she said, pointing at the region of rocks floating above the path that he would need to take.

Even without excessive movements and the obvious circulation of energy, a single casual use of a finger technique caused an enormous wave of force to shoot through the floating field, countless chunks of material being torn to shreds in moments, leaving thin dust in the areas around the previous portion of the field. Some remnants of the materials did remain in that line, but even if they did fall, they would do little to harm him or anyone else that attempted to proceed down that particular path, meaning that even an ordinary person could traverse it.

As such, the man was able to take a nervous step into the field, realising right away that something was suddenly acting upon him, attempting to bring his body up into the air. With the aerial traversal of the fifth realm, he stabilised himself, but not before noting that all of his shoulder-length hair was floating up as well.

“This… gravity modification?”

“Of course it is. Do you think I am able to actively spend my energy to make each of these small rocks float in the air?” she asked, “Come on, hurry up and don’t waste your own energy.”

“Of course,” he nodded, speeding up as he tried to pass through the field more quickly, confirming that the longer he spent within it, the more confused he felt. It was as if the very world was flipping over, and he was struggling to connect his vision with the gravity, and he was almost certain that if he had remained in place for too long, he would be tempted to commit to the pull of gravity and fall up to the layer of stones to wander it forever…

Realising that his mind had gone elsewhere, he shook his head and hastened on, making it through far more quickly than he had anticipated. It was not as quick as a journey made with the innate movement ability of the fourth realm, but that could have some unforeseen problems when crossing a gravity field.

“So… what do I do? Would you simply have me declare my leadership, or is there something else that you intend?”

“I will have some people pass through the gateway to assist with the clearing and reconstruction, and then I shall put you into the sixth realm. After that, I am sure that you and anyone else who has participated in previous management and leadership will be able to figure out how to proceed, and I am sure that the other districts will be more than happy to assist you with anything that you require so long as you don’t attempt to take advantage of their kindness or re-establish the kind of systems that had prompted yesterday’s battle to begin with,” she clarified, turning to the gateway, “Now, let us begin the restoration.”

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