The Flashes of Antiquity talisman sheet stopped as Long Mingyun and Kong Shi Meng agreed to peace, with the smoke dispersing and the world reconstructing itself from the loose particles that returned from the void.
As she was more prepared this time, Wei Yi observed that the many particles of matter didn’t correlate to reality, but only to her view of it, meaning that this was truly a simple illusion and not some partial unravelling of reality in order to attain a fancy visual effect. This likely meant that this scene was not made by someone with an understanding of the true Master of Yi City, as that understanding would be bound to come alongside a great deal of power from some of the techniques that he had created in the past, even if they could only grasp the most basic ones amongst them.
Once everyone came to their senses, they saw that the man had disappeared, and that Luo Lia Kun and Shi Taihao had taken their place in the arena.
Both of them were clearly taking this very seriously. Luo Lia Kun wore several middle-grade artefacts as armour, including a dense grey chestplate that would be more suitable for a regular human warrior rather than a cultivator, a set of metal greaves and gauntlets, and wielded a whip, of all things. It brought back some memories for Wei Yi, but she knew that this whip and the one that she first destroyed with her cosmic energy were entirely different entities.
Meanwhile, Shi Taihao stood with his chest bare, his legs covered by similarly dense metallic armour of the artefact variety, and held an unnecessarily large war hammer that was almost as big as his chest, earning a comment from Chao Ru the moment that she saw it.
“Told you that guy was compensating for something.”
“How rude. It’s hardly his fault if that is the case,” Wei Yi replied, mostly in jest. She didn’t intend to use her spiritual perception to confirm those kinds of things, especially not with men.
“Everyone, now that the strange experience of the Flashes of Antiquity is over, we may proceed onto the main event! Don’t ask me where that man went, though – not a clue. I was… eh… too busy watching the dragon girl. Anyway, I was asked to avoid stating names in previous duels, but there’s no point to doing that now!” the announcer spoke, another talisman being burned away just like that, “On the side of the Brotherhood of Power, the vice-leader, Luo Lia Kun! Wielder of her family’s cultivation techniques and combat arts, she is bound to fight hard for her victory!”
“It’d be great if you could shut up and move on, Luo Shi. I can always ask the family to reprimand you, and they will be all too happy to do this.”
“The next guy is apparently popular with women. Alright, let’s- Ah! Don’t hit me, didn’t you hear what she said? Hm? What are you talking about? Oh. Ooh. I see… That guy is Shi Taihao, and he has a big hammer. Is that good enough?”
There were no more complains from whoever else was in the room with him, so presumably that was enough of an introduction after all. Shi Taihao himself was clearly not satisfied with this, but he overcame this quite quickly, preparing his war hammer in the most optimal position to toss it towards the announcer, although he changed his mind very quickly and looked back towards Luo Lia Kun, who also readied her whip.
Both of them decided to ignore the announcer, as he was both unreliable and annoying, and instead considered someone or something else that could signal the beginning of the battle.
For different reasons, yet at the same time, their gazes were drawn to Wei Yi, who sat almost perfectly in the middle of the spectator seats on their side, and when they glanced at one another, they knew that they had unintentionally come to an agreement.
Wei Yi knew that even the character that she was playing would understand their intentions, but it would also not be strange for Wei Yi the Warrior to confirm exactly what they wanted while unintentionally getting to a convenient spot where she could perform the request with greatest ease and effectiveness, so she did exactly that, getting up and running down to the edge of the seating area, where a chest-high wall prevented most from accidentally stumbling off.
“Did you need something?”
“Yes. Could you wait a few seconds, then initiate the battle in an impressive manner?” Luo Lia Kun asked, not perturbed by the delay in the slightest.
She nodded in reply, then muttered to herself, “There’s no-one here whose heart I can tear out…”
A momentary glance was cast at Chao Ru, who could do little more than cock her head and try and understand the strange things that went on within the warrior’s head, before she looked back towards the arena and then into the air. Most of this was just to waste time, as she had been asked to do, although she did consider for a moment whether she could stretch the definition of the word impressive and do something attention-catching and highly unnecessary, hence the glance towards Chao Ru, but it was hardly a good idea and so she dropped it before deciding on a display of her improved Phoenix Transformation mastery.
Wei Yi took in a deep breath, then activated both forms of Lion’s Roar within her body at once through flame-type energy and activated the Phoenix Transformation modifier, fusing planar technique and physique ability in a rudimentary yet effective manner.
As her voice left her mouth, it morphed into the mirage of a great phoenix, soaring from her form and flooding the sky with its ancient splendour, unleashing a cry that was loud enough to be deafening, and yet incredibly delightful to listen to, without the negative effects of losing one’s hearing. It filled the arena in an instant, a bold, noble and elegant sound, then the mirage almost seemed to take the sound and fly off into the sky, bringing the cry further and further out.
The bird’s call quickly spread throughout the Luo District, countless people, cultivators and normal humans alike, emerging to see what the source of the sound was, only to be momentarily entranced by the phoenix that rose into the heavens, almost as it if was returning to its proper home in the clouds, and some kept staring even when it vanished.
Some were naturally bothered that a disturbance had forced them out of their home, but most were satisfied with getting to listen to a lost sound and witness a lost sight, so few even bothered to learn what the origin of it was.
The leader and vice-leader in the arena were distracted for a moment, seeing this fantastic vision above them, but recovered almost at the same time and leapt into action, setting down their planar anchors from the very beginning to amplify their might, their three-sided structures surrounded by glimmering cores and with a series of searing, flaming scars on their surface. Shi Taihao had forty-two marks at his current eighth stage of the Marked Core realm, whereas Luo Lia Kun had twenty-one within her fifth stage, suggesting at she would attain roughly thirty-seven once she reached the peak of the realm.
Nevertheless, both were confident, and both were ready to end the other’s lives if possible – it would be far more difficult due to the greater attention upon them, but it would be incredibly useful to do so.
The leader and vice-leader of any mercenary company were incredibly important, as they led the group, directed its path and growth, and often provided and modified techniques for the usage of their group’s members, meaning that the moment one of them perished, they would be unable to develop in their current direction and thus fall behind most of the other organisations that are in direct competition with them.
Since the leader of the Brotherhood of Power never seemed to emerge from whatever deep cavern she had decided to settle down in, Luo Lia Kun appeared to be the one that had been doing most of the work for quite some time, so if her leadership was removed, even the return of the leader wouldn’t do much to restore their cohesion, also meaning that ending the life of the leader might not even be noticed by the Brotherhood, although there were also some issues with targeting this leader. Unlike Luo Lia Kun, she was believed to have the combat ability of the lower sixth realm, and that was not something that Shi Taihao could handle no matter how good of a day he was having.
It was a little like how cutting off the head of a hydra would result in two more heads being grown, but these heads being able to do less than the one before them, as their size would be ever so slightly smaller, their strength inferior and their room for movement would also decrease.
Most people thought otherwise, and so they strained too excessively when attempting to slaughter various hydra-type planar beasts, trying to reach the heart, lungs, or some other vital organs, only to be overwhelmed and forced back, whereas they should have been focusing on depleting their energy by repeatedly severing heads until the beast ended up as nothing more than a tangled mess of flesh that could be slain by any common man.
The situation with Shi Taihao was similar, as he had no leader to replace him and was one of the few with a mind that did not reside within the groin, meaning that his removal would be extremely detrimental to the Gang Hong Clan in a slightly different, yet similarly significant manner, as his underlings would likely be able to follow his techniques and improve upon them but would most certainly struggle to replicate anything resembling his mental capabilities, meaning that the Clan would decline nonetheless.
As such, neither Luo Lia Kun nor Shi Taihao would dare squander this opportunity.
Due to the former having a weapon with longer range and more room for fluid motion than the yang-oriented flame-type hammer techniques of the latter, Luo Lia Kun was the first to make a move towards the other, cracking her whip in the air and manifesting a layer of tidal foam within the air that flew towards her foe like a great crescent blade.
It flew far more quickly than any tide could, however, and was almost cutting into Shi Taihao when he brought down his hammer upon it, scattering the planar construct into nothingness and giving him the chance to raise his weapon and swing it horizontally, creating an enormous wave of scorching air that was compressed into a projectile through the combination of the strike and his planar energy before being sent back towards Luo Lia Kun with as much speed as the tidal foam crescent.
In response, the whip struck the air once more, and the sphere of heated air was met with a blow of great force that shattered it and dissipated any of the power within it.
‘This is the rather dull part of organised conflict that I usually don’t see, since I manage to get into far more serious conflicts with the Greats, otherworldly demons and hungry nests… They’re bound to use far more force soon.’
After a few more attacks, sending small bursts of energy at one another, they clearly concluded exactly how their foes had developed and grown, and thus they were finally able to unleash the full strength of the fifth realm that had been hidden just beneath the surface. Their marked cores lit up, and a mark from each of their cores was suddenly extinguished as the planar energy flowing in the meridians beneath their skin ignited in the colour of the searing mark, empowering their simultaneous attacks with twice their usual power.
Luo Lia Kun lashed the ground, causing a large rift surrounded by water to appear within the floor of the arena, innumerable swords sprouting from the ground and chaining towards Shi Taihao, each one emerging out of the ground higher and higher up until they burst out up to their hilt, their speed also accelerating greatly.
Meanwhile, Shi Taihao thrust his hammer into the air and flooded an immense quantity of energy towards it, some kind of complex array-like structure emerging from the hammer and resting within the air, composed of several layers that continuously rotated at different speeds and thus formed the vague shape of a circle via the oscillating movement of various different shapes, through which great quantities of energy poured like an upwards waterfall, heading towards some kind of effect that wasn’t yet obvious to most those in the spectator seats.
When the swords were almost upon him, almost in a repeat of the initial exchange, he thrust the hammer into the air once more, colliding with the great series of arrays within the air and causing them to burst into a blinding light, sending a great beam into the air.
It travelled at an immense speed, not giving a single chance for another sword to rise from the ground, before it suddenly fell back down, cutting into the rift surrounded by water and tearing it asunder, preventing any more swords from rising. Those that did, escaped from the rift and rose into the air, aiming their tips at Shi Taihao, momentarily pausing within the air, then soaring towards his heart.
A second instance of the beam fell from the sky, right onto those swords, shattering the majority of them while the rest were slowed significantly, allowing him to knock them out of the air with his own strength. However, the bright light remained in the air, an individual beam falling from the sky once again and directly targeting Luo Lia Kun’s position, the beam seeming to be significantly more powerful than the other two, both of which had been enough to gouge out enormous holes within the arena ground that made the organisers empathise just a little bit with the man that had been asked to handle the recruitment of the two.
Luo Lia Kun didn’t panic, instead attacking with her whip as a great quantity of energy passed through it, the mirage of a wave manifesting as it passed through the whip’s length and emerged as a thin, incredibly powerful vertical wave that went straight towards the centre of the beam.
When the two met, neither one was destroyed, nor was there any kind of grandiose explosion to mark the collision of the two. Instead, the wave cut straight into the beam, splitting it perfectly in half, directing both sides just far enough away for them to completely miss Luo Lia Kun without forcing her to take a single step.
Neither one appeared to care about that exchange, as they immediately activated more marks and attacked one another again, not caring for the immense planar energy consumption nor the destruction caused by their repeated strikes. They just launched strike after strike, planar construct after planar construct, and successfully confirmed the very assumption that many had made regarding their abilities – they were about as evenly matched as a pair of people could be, and that this would take a while.
Several more of the array-bound beams were shot into the sky and then back down onto the ground, the necessity for such a usage of energy evading Wei Yi and most others, but the fact that they resided within the air for quite some time even after all of the beams were fired did catch her attention.
‘I wonder, regardless of whether that’s just waste energy from his technique or something he plans to use later, if I could, perchance, absorb some of that energy for myself and take advantage of some free fifth-realm power falling straight into my lap… Well, not literally, but I know of one way in which I can take it without anyone noticing…’ she thought, focusing on that cloud of energy.
Whether or not she would be able to make use of it was not her immediate concern, as she had a place that would certainly permit her to store it for as long as she wanted without needing to care about the possibility of anyone noticing that she was the one that took it, which was the Kong Prison Realm. Her only concern would be that if she randomly opened it within the sky and stole the energy, it would undoubtedly catch the attention of those present, and if there just happened to be a member of a Great Family anywhere near, her entire advantage over them would be exposed that very instant.
As such, she would never allow it to be exposed without absolute certainty that she was ready for a full war or that she would be able to cover it up in some manner, meaning that it was far more important to conceal the prison realm than to acquire every single bit of the energy of the sky. In order to act in accordance with this, she decided to release a great quantity of her spiritual will into the sky, making sure to only permit it to flow along a very specific path so that no traces of it would leak to any potential observers in the area, willing it to form a large array that would not obscure anything seen here, but instead distort and divert it, as that was notably easier and less conspicuous than outright removing something from existence.
Completely hiding the opening of the prison realm would be highly difficult without creating something else to draw the people’s attention, so it would be safest to redirect the attention to something insignificant elsewhere and, most importantly, hide any semblance of the spatial aura of the prison realm.
‘I’m not entirely sure what to use, however… What exactly would Wei Yi the Warrior do that would be both reasonable from the perspective of those around her, and that would cover up the opening perfectly?’ Wei Yi wondered for a moment, before she realised that she didn’t even need to come up with anything new, as she had already established the exact action that the character she played would take during the experiment that set off the duel.
When she completed the array in the sky, she waited for a while until another impressive exchange occurred between the two of them, one that the majority of the audience found exciting enough to elicit some kind of vocal cheer or response, and joined in.
“Go, vice-leader! You can do it!” she exclaimed, infusing the Lion’s Roar into her voice again.
This time, she made sure to further empower her words, meaning that she didn’t just create a casual phoenix cry once they were transformed by the Phoenix Transformation modifier, but instead manifested an enormous mirage of the full body of a phoenix that soared into the sky and caught the attention of all that viewed it once more.
It flew up to the location of the gathered glowing energy and seemed to let out another cry on its own, garnering a second glance from both participants of the duel before they also understood that letting themselves get distracted would only allow their opponents to take advantage of their weakness and potentially decide the battle, thus returning all of their focus onto one another, although Shi Taihao did appear to look up for an instant longer than his foe.
Whether that was by accident or not didn’t matter, as the phoenix’s aura, as vague as it was, distracted from the truth that occurred behind it, and when it vanished, so did the array behind it.
Most of the glowing light left behind from the several beams fired into the sky vanished, but enough remained for it to not immediately catch the attention of those that observed the phoenix mirage’s disappearance.
Everything that was taken away appeared within the prison realm, where Wei Yi’s consciousness observed it only a moment later. Without the control of Shi Taihao, or, rather, the support of his anchor and core, this energy was slowly breaking down into a liquid state, which was hardly ideal if she wanted to make the most of the situation.
She quickly analysed it, considering whether or not it would be possible for her to absorb and process the energy in some way before it lost its usefulness, and ultimately concluded that it would be a little beyond her capabilities for the moment. If it was unbound from another cultivator, or if Shi Taihao was only in the fourth realm, it might have been possible for her, or perhaps if she had already achieved a breakthrough into the next half of the Emergent Anchor realm and witnessed the improvement brought about by the culmination of nine stages of progress, but for now, only the Kong Prison Realm itself would be able to process the energy effectively.
“Yi Shi Ming, could you force all of this into the planar stones for me? I don’t exactly have the opportunity to enter and do this myself.”
The spatial spirit appeared beside the location of her spiritual perception and nodded, “I will. If you do not mind me saying this, you seem to encounter quite a few interesting individuals when you travel to new districts.”
“What do you find interesting about this particular quantity of energy?”
“It was stabilised not as a planar construct, but through the energy of a searing mark. It’s not the greatest achievement I have witnessed, but it is clever.”
“Indeed, it is. I’m guessing that the energy could then be controlled to strike again as a beam?”
“If that is indeed the method used by the cultivator, then yes. With the combination of several searing marks infused into this energy, it will likely be significantly more powerful than the individual attacks that had gathered it, so if that Luo Lia Kun is someone that you do not wish to perish, removing this energy will likely guarantee her victory,” Yi Shi Ming said, a large array surrounding all of the bright energy and connecting it to the planar stones that still stood in the dirt, allowing them to be filled before they would then disperse the energy into the prison realm in an unrefined state some time later.
At the same time, the size of the planar stones would grow by a certain extent, thus allowing the overall quantity of planar energy within the prison realm to rise.
“So, how’s Senior Yi Yi doing?”
“Well enough, for the moment. I’ve had to bring food over to him several times as he is too invested in exploring the great dome around Beast’s Rest, having sealed himself away from the outside world to the point that anyone else wouldn’t be able to get near him,” she said, both of them quickly travelling to that point of the prison realm with their own abilities, “You don’t need to speak with him now, but it might be a good idea in the near future.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Continue watching him. Has Min Lian done anything strange while I was distracted?”
“She has been meditating in wait for you, and I think that speaking to her soon would also be wise.”
“That much is obvious. Could you tell her that she may need to spend some more time here? I’m not certain how well any kind of assistant figure could fit in to my current circumstances, and since we would be under the jurisdiction of Luo Lia Kun even if I manage to get her in, there would be many times when she will need to get quite far away from me. I’m not certain that would be safe until she reaches the fourth realm, at which point her existence will be entirely stabilised by the active core,” Wei Yi explained, although it was highly likely that the spatial spirit had already come to understand some of Min Lian’s nature even if she had no awareness of it before.
“Of course, I will do so the moment that I am certain that the energy you sent here won’t go berserk in any fashion. I will also attempt to refine the energy in a certain manner that would leave some for you to use, as I understand that you require a breakthrough as soon as possible,” the spatial spirit said, “Just don’t forget about that woman. As with most assassins, her mind was affected for the sake of controlling her entirely, and since you have mostly replaced her memories of her master with yourself, she is, rather unfortunately, dependant on you in more ways than one. Take care of her.”
Wei Yi nodded, then brought her focus out of the spatial realm and back to reality, where the phoenix mirage was only beginning to fade due to the different speed of time within the prison realm whenever she entered it.
She retreated to her seat and continued to watch the battle, noting that the number of seared marks upon the cores of both combatants had decreased significantly to the point that they no longer used their most powerful attacks, clearly saving them up to unleash one final strike the moment that they thought that they would have the best chance of victory.
As a result, the cloud of planar energy that was left from the many beams was not refilled nor reinforced by any further attacks, and while it did not dissipate due to being within the range of his control of planar energy, Shi Taihao did not appear to realize that anything had occurred, likely making the exact same mistake that so many warriors in the world did and failing to confirm their surroundings at all times with their spiritual perception, a flaw that could easily extend up to the seventh realm so long as someone didn’t put in the effort to refine their abilities a little like Wei Yi did. The Oblivion Halo realm would grant a great range of spiritual perception and an immense amount of power that would make it highly difficult not to constantly understand at least a small space around the cultivator.
Furthermore, that great amount of power would be unlikely to leave one’s mind as simple as before.
It was almost twenty minutes later that the moment of final confrontation finally seemed to come about, and Shi Taihao initiated it, all but one of his remaining searing marks dimming as a great burst of light surged from him, containing the light of every single mark and soaring into the sky.
“Now, don’t you dare stand still, Luo Lia Kun!”
“What?” the vice-leader questioned, hesitating for a moment as she couldn’t guess whether the man was being a fool that intended to use his power to intimidate her into doing the wrong thing, or if he was trying to trick her by making it seem like he was doing the former whereas it would be more beneficial to do the opposite.
That was exactly the effect he had required, for the moment that the blinding light from his body made contact with the gathering of energy above him, his victory would be assured.
Before she had the opportunity to move, once she had concluded that it would be wiser to move away than to stand still, especially if the attack was to be similar to the multiple beams that he had used previously, one final, wide, seemingly all-encompassing beam fell from the sky, crashing upon Luo Lia Kun with immense force that seemed sufficient to shatter not just her every bone, but also obliterate all that remained of the arena floor beneath them, finally collapsing the damaged structure.
“This- why’re you hitting me? What do you mean she-”
From the light, a figure emerged at great speed, the whip in her hand following a moment later and wrapping around Shi Taihao’s neck, allowing her to pull him over while channelling her planar energy and the power of a searing mark into a water-like blade, which she aimed directly at his throat.
“You had your chance!” Luo Lia Kun replied, thrusting the blade into him without allowing him any action or words, “I win!”
The water blade pierced directly through his skin, his flesh, the bones in the neck, and then out the other side, requiring only a little more force from the vice-leader to cut through one side and then come back to cut the other way, chopping off his head within a single mighty blow. His head fell onto the ground with his expression radiating shock, rather than pain, loss or disappointment.
Wei Yi understood his silent question better than most, but she wouldn’t bother to answer even if he had won. Instead, she focused on the anchor energy that fell from him, as well as all of the energy that had gathered up within the arena, and willed it to enter the Truth of the Universe before checking the interface that she was quite familiar with now. It confirmed that the anchor energy of someone in a greater realm didn’t affect the number of points she received, and that only those from the Great Families and otherworldly demons with unusual anchors would be able to grant her the same kind of immense reward as the Great Aberrant.
Nevertheless, her total number of anchor points rose to two hundred and sixty-three, giving her significantly more room for exploration and experimentation, although she was still tempted to hold back on trading in any of those until she found it to be absolutely necessary.
‘For now, I need to focus on other things. The moment that some technique of interest appears, I can instantly raise its power to the Full Success stage and elaborate on it myself before completing the process via the combination of the Realm of Potential and the Truth of the Universe,’ she thought, looking around to confirm that nobody had noticed the movement of anchor energy. They did not.
The Flashes of Antiquity talisman sheet stopped as Long Mingyun and Kong Shi Meng agreed to peace, with the smoke dispersing and the world reconstructing itself from the loose particles that returned from the void.
As she was more prepared this time, Wei Yi observed that the many particles of matter didn’t correlate to reality, but only to her view of it, meaning that this was truly a simple illusion and not some partial unravelling of reality in order to attain a fancy visual effect. This likely meant that this scene was not made by someone with an understanding of the true Master of Yi City, as that understanding would be bound to come alongside a great deal of power from some of the techniques that he had created in the past, even if they could only grasp the most basic ones amongst them.
Once everyone came to their senses, they saw that the man had disappeared, and that Luo Lia Kun and Shi Taihao had taken their place in the arena.
Both of them were clearly taking this very seriously. Luo Lia Kun wore several middle-grade artefacts as armour, including a dense grey chestplate that would be more suitable for a regular human warrior rather than a cultivator, a set of metal greaves and gauntlets, and wielded a whip, of all things. It brought back some memories for Wei Yi, but she knew that this whip and the one that she first destroyed with her cosmic energy were entirely different entities.
Meanwhile, Shi Taihao stood with his chest bare, his legs covered by similarly dense metallic armour of the artefact variety, and held an unnecessarily large war hammer that was almost as big as his chest, earning a comment from Chao Ru the moment that she saw it.
“Told you that guy was compensating for something.”
“How rude. It’s hardly his fault if that is the case,” Wei Yi replied, mostly in jest. She didn’t intend to use her spiritual perception to confirm those kinds of things, especially not with men.
“Everyone, now that the strange experience of the Flashes of Antiquity is over, we may proceed onto the main event! Don’t ask me where that man went, though – not a clue. I was… eh… too busy watching the dragon girl. Anyway, I was asked to avoid stating names in previous duels, but there’s no point to doing that now!” the announcer spoke, another talisman being burned away just like that, “On the side of the Brotherhood of Power, the vice-leader, Luo Lia Kun! Wielder of her family’s cultivation techniques and combat arts, she is bound to fight hard for her victory!”
“It’d be great if you could shut up and move on, Luo Shi. I can always ask the family to reprimand you, and they will be all too happy to do this.”
“The next guy is apparently popular with women. Alright, let’s- Ah! Don’t hit me, didn’t you hear what she said? Hm? What are you talking about? Oh. Ooh. I see… That guy is Shi Taihao, and he has a big hammer. Is that good enough?”
There were no more complains from whoever else was in the room with him, so presumably that was enough of an introduction after all. Shi Taihao himself was clearly not satisfied with this, but he overcame this quite quickly, preparing his war hammer in the most optimal position to toss it towards the announcer, although he changed his mind very quickly and looked back towards Luo Lia Kun, who also readied her whip.
Both of them decided to ignore the announcer, as he was both unreliable and annoying, and instead considered someone or something else that could signal the beginning of the battle.
For different reasons, yet at the same time, their gazes were drawn to Wei Yi, who sat almost perfectly in the middle of the spectator seats on their side, and when they glanced at one another, they knew that they had unintentionally come to an agreement.
Wei Yi knew that even the character that she was playing would understand their intentions, but it would also not be strange for Wei Yi the Warrior to confirm exactly what they wanted while unintentionally getting to a convenient spot where she could perform the request with greatest ease and effectiveness, so she did exactly that, getting up and running down to the edge of the seating area, where a chest-high wall prevented most from accidentally stumbling off.
“Did you need something?”
“Yes. Could you wait a few seconds, then initiate the battle in an impressive manner?” Luo Lia Kun asked, not perturbed by the delay in the slightest.
She nodded in reply, then muttered to herself, “There’s no-one here whose heart I can tear out…”
A momentary glance was cast at Chao Ru, who could do little more than cock her head and try and understand the strange things that went on within the warrior’s head, before she looked back towards the arena and then into the air. Most of this was just to waste time, as she had been asked to do, although she did consider for a moment whether she could stretch the definition of the word impressive and do something attention-catching and highly unnecessary, hence the glance towards Chao Ru, but it was hardly a good idea and so she dropped it before deciding on a display of her improved Phoenix Transformation mastery.
Wei Yi took in a deep breath, then activated both forms of Lion’s Roar within her body at once through flame-type energy and activated the Phoenix Transformation modifier, fusing planar technique and physique ability in a rudimentary yet effective manner.
As her voice left her mouth, it morphed into the mirage of a great phoenix, soaring from her form and flooding the sky with its ancient splendour, unleashing a cry that was loud enough to be deafening, and yet incredibly delightful to listen to, without the negative effects of losing one’s hearing. It filled the arena in an instant, a bold, noble and elegant sound, then the mirage almost seemed to take the sound and fly off into the sky, bringing the cry further and further out.
The bird’s call quickly spread throughout the Luo District, countless people, cultivators and normal humans alike, emerging to see what the source of the sound was, only to be momentarily entranced by the phoenix that rose into the heavens, almost as it if was returning to its proper home in the clouds, and some kept staring even when it vanished.
Some were naturally bothered that a disturbance had forced them out of their home, but most were satisfied with getting to listen to a lost sound and witness a lost sight, so few even bothered to learn what the origin of it was.
The leader and vice-leader in the arena were distracted for a moment, seeing this fantastic vision above them, but recovered almost at the same time and leapt into action, setting down their planar anchors from the very beginning to amplify their might, their three-sided structures surrounded by glimmering cores and with a series of searing, flaming scars on their surface. Shi Taihao had forty-two marks at his current eighth stage of the Marked Core realm, whereas Luo Lia Kun had twenty-one within her fifth stage, suggesting at she would attain roughly thirty-seven once she reached the peak of the realm.
Nevertheless, both were confident, and both were ready to end the other’s lives if possible – it would be far more difficult due to the greater attention upon them, but it would be incredibly useful to do so.
The leader and vice-leader of any mercenary company were incredibly important, as they led the group, directed its path and growth, and often provided and modified techniques for the usage of their group’s members, meaning that the moment one of them perished, they would be unable to develop in their current direction and thus fall behind most of the other organisations that are in direct competition with them.
Since the leader of the Brotherhood of Power never seemed to emerge from whatever deep cavern she had decided to settle down in, Luo Lia Kun appeared to be the one that had been doing most of the work for quite some time, so if her leadership was removed, even the return of the leader wouldn’t do much to restore their cohesion, also meaning that ending the life of the leader might not even be noticed by the Brotherhood, although there were also some issues with targeting this leader. Unlike Luo Lia Kun, she was believed to have the combat ability of the lower sixth realm, and that was not something that Shi Taihao could handle no matter how good of a day he was having.
It was a little like how cutting off the head of a hydra would result in two more heads being grown, but these heads being able to do less than the one before them, as their size would be ever so slightly smaller, their strength inferior and their room for movement would also decrease.
Most people thought otherwise, and so they strained too excessively when attempting to slaughter various hydra-type planar beasts, trying to reach the heart, lungs, or some other vital organs, only to be overwhelmed and forced back, whereas they should have been focusing on depleting their energy by repeatedly severing heads until the beast ended up as nothing more than a tangled mess of flesh that could be slain by any common man.
The situation with Shi Taihao was similar, as he had no leader to replace him and was one of the few with a mind that did not reside within the groin, meaning that his removal would be extremely detrimental to the Gang Hong Clan in a slightly different, yet similarly significant manner, as his underlings would likely be able to follow his techniques and improve upon them but would most certainly struggle to replicate anything resembling his mental capabilities, meaning that the Clan would decline nonetheless.
As such, neither Luo Lia Kun nor Shi Taihao would dare squander this opportunity.
Due to the former having a weapon with longer range and more room for fluid motion than the yang-oriented flame-type hammer techniques of the latter, Luo Lia Kun was the first to make a move towards the other, cracking her whip in the air and manifesting a layer of tidal foam within the air that flew towards her foe like a great crescent blade.
It flew far more quickly than any tide could, however, and was almost cutting into Shi Taihao when he brought down his hammer upon it, scattering the planar construct into nothingness and giving him the chance to raise his weapon and swing it horizontally, creating an enormous wave of scorching air that was compressed into a projectile through the combination of the strike and his planar energy before being sent back towards Luo Lia Kun with as much speed as the tidal foam crescent.
In response, the whip struck the air once more, and the sphere of heated air was met with a blow of great force that shattered it and dissipated any of the power within it.
‘This is the rather dull part of organised conflict that I usually don’t see, since I manage to get into far more serious conflicts with the Greats, otherworldly demons and hungry nests… They’re bound to use far more force soon.’
After a few more attacks, sending small bursts of energy at one another, they clearly concluded exactly how their foes had developed and grown, and thus they were finally able to unleash the full strength of the fifth realm that had been hidden just beneath the surface. Their marked cores lit up, and a mark from each of their cores was suddenly extinguished as the planar energy flowing in the meridians beneath their skin ignited in the colour of the searing mark, empowering their simultaneous attacks with twice their usual power.
Luo Lia Kun lashed the ground, causing a large rift surrounded by water to appear within the floor of the arena, innumerable swords sprouting from the ground and chaining towards Shi Taihao, each one emerging out of the ground higher and higher up until they burst out up to their hilt, their speed also accelerating greatly.
Meanwhile, Shi Taihao thrust his hammer into the air and flooded an immense quantity of energy towards it, some kind of complex array-like structure emerging from the hammer and resting within the air, composed of several layers that continuously rotated at different speeds and thus formed the vague shape of a circle via the oscillating movement of various different shapes, through which great quantities of energy poured like an upwards waterfall, heading towards some kind of effect that wasn’t yet obvious to most those in the spectator seats.
When the swords were almost upon him, almost in a repeat of the initial exchange, he thrust the hammer into the air once more, colliding with the great series of arrays within the air and causing them to burst into a blinding light, sending a great beam into the air.
It travelled at an immense speed, not giving a single chance for another sword to rise from the ground, before it suddenly fell back down, cutting into the rift surrounded by water and tearing it asunder, preventing any more swords from rising. Those that did, escaped from the rift and rose into the air, aiming their tips at Shi Taihao, momentarily pausing within the air, then soaring towards his heart.
A second instance of the beam fell from the sky, right onto those swords, shattering the majority of them while the rest were slowed significantly, allowing him to knock them out of the air with his own strength. However, the bright light remained in the air, an individual beam falling from the sky once again and directly targeting Luo Lia Kun’s position, the beam seeming to be significantly more powerful than the other two, both of which had been enough to gouge out enormous holes within the arena ground that made the organisers empathise just a little bit with the man that had been asked to handle the recruitment of the two.
Luo Lia Kun didn’t panic, instead attacking with her whip as a great quantity of energy passed through it, the mirage of a wave manifesting as it passed through the whip’s length and emerged as a thin, incredibly powerful vertical wave that went straight towards the centre of the beam.
When the two met, neither one was destroyed, nor was there any kind of grandiose explosion to mark the collision of the two. Instead, the wave cut straight into the beam, splitting it perfectly in half, directing both sides just far enough away for them to completely miss Luo Lia Kun without forcing her to take a single step.
Neither one appeared to care about that exchange, as they immediately activated more marks and attacked one another again, not caring for the immense planar energy consumption nor the destruction caused by their repeated strikes. They just launched strike after strike, planar construct after planar construct, and successfully confirmed the very assumption that many had made regarding their abilities – they were about as evenly matched as a pair of people could be, and that this would take a while.
Several more of the array-bound beams were shot into the sky and then back down onto the ground, the necessity for such a usage of energy evading Wei Yi and most others, but the fact that they resided within the air for quite some time even after all of the beams were fired did catch her attention.
‘I wonder, regardless of whether that’s just waste energy from his technique or something he plans to use later, if I could, perchance, absorb some of that energy for myself and take advantage of some free fifth-realm power falling straight into my lap… Well, not literally, but I know of one way in which I can take it without anyone noticing…’ she thought, focusing on that cloud of energy.
Whether or not she would be able to make use of it was not her immediate concern, as she had a place that would certainly permit her to store it for as long as she wanted without needing to care about the possibility of anyone noticing that she was the one that took it, which was the Kong Prison Realm. Her only concern would be that if she randomly opened it within the sky and stole the energy, it would undoubtedly catch the attention of those present, and if there just happened to be a member of a Great Family anywhere near, her entire advantage over them would be exposed that very instant.
As such, she would never allow it to be exposed without absolute certainty that she was ready for a full war or that she would be able to cover it up in some manner, meaning that it was far more important to conceal the prison realm than to acquire every single bit of the energy of the sky. In order to act in accordance with this, she decided to release a great quantity of her spiritual will into the sky, making sure to only permit it to flow along a very specific path so that no traces of it would leak to any potential observers in the area, willing it to form a large array that would not obscure anything seen here, but instead distort and divert it, as that was notably easier and less conspicuous than outright removing something from existence.
Completely hiding the opening of the prison realm would be highly difficult without creating something else to draw the people’s attention, so it would be safest to redirect the attention to something insignificant elsewhere and, most importantly, hide any semblance of the spatial aura of the prison realm.
‘I’m not entirely sure what to use, however… What exactly would Wei Yi the Warrior do that would be both reasonable from the perspective of those around her, and that would cover up the opening perfectly?’ Wei Yi wondered for a moment, before she realised that she didn’t even need to come up with anything new, as she had already established the exact action that the character she played would take during the experiment that set off the duel.
When she completed the array in the sky, she waited for a while until another impressive exchange occurred between the two of them, one that the majority of the audience found exciting enough to elicit some kind of vocal cheer or response, and joined in.
“Go, vice-leader! You can do it!” she exclaimed, infusing the Lion’s Roar into her voice again.
This time, she made sure to further empower her words, meaning that she didn’t just create a casual phoenix cry once they were transformed by the Phoenix Transformation modifier, but instead manifested an enormous mirage of the full body of a phoenix that soared into the sky and caught the attention of all that viewed it once more.
It flew up to the location of the gathered glowing energy and seemed to let out another cry on its own, garnering a second glance from both participants of the duel before they also understood that letting themselves get distracted would only allow their opponents to take advantage of their weakness and potentially decide the battle, thus returning all of their focus onto one another, although Shi Taihao did appear to look up for an instant longer than his foe.
Whether that was by accident or not didn’t matter, as the phoenix’s aura, as vague as it was, distracted from the truth that occurred behind it, and when it vanished, so did the array behind it.
Most of the glowing light left behind from the several beams fired into the sky vanished, but enough remained for it to not immediately catch the attention of those that observed the phoenix mirage’s disappearance.
Everything that was taken away appeared within the prison realm, where Wei Yi’s consciousness observed it only a moment later. Without the control of Shi Taihao, or, rather, the support of his anchor and core, this energy was slowly breaking down into a liquid state, which was hardly ideal if she wanted to make the most of the situation.
She quickly analysed it, considering whether or not it would be possible for her to absorb and process the energy in some way before it lost its usefulness, and ultimately concluded that it would be a little beyond her capabilities for the moment. If it was unbound from another cultivator, or if Shi Taihao was only in the fourth realm, it might have been possible for her, or perhaps if she had already achieved a breakthrough into the next half of the Emergent Anchor realm and witnessed the improvement brought about by the culmination of nine stages of progress, but for now, only the Kong Prison Realm itself would be able to process the energy effectively.
“Yi Shi Ming, could you force all of this into the planar stones for me? I don’t exactly have the opportunity to enter and do this myself.”
The spatial spirit appeared beside the location of her spiritual perception and nodded, “I will. If you do not mind me saying this, you seem to encounter quite a few interesting individuals when you travel to new districts.”
“What do you find interesting about this particular quantity of energy?”
“It was stabilised not as a planar construct, but through the energy of a searing mark. It’s not the greatest achievement I have witnessed, but it is clever.”
“Indeed, it is. I’m guessing that the energy could then be controlled to strike again as a beam?”
“If that is indeed the method used by the cultivator, then yes. With the combination of several searing marks infused into this energy, it will likely be significantly more powerful than the individual attacks that had gathered it, so if that Luo Lia Kun is someone that you do not wish to perish, removing this energy will likely guarantee her victory,” Yi Shi Ming said, a large array surrounding all of the bright energy and connecting it to the planar stones that still stood in the dirt, allowing them to be filled before they would then disperse the energy into the prison realm in an unrefined state some time later.
At the same time, the size of the planar stones would grow by a certain extent, thus allowing the overall quantity of planar energy within the prison realm to rise.
“So, how’s Senior Yi Yi doing?”
“Well enough, for the moment. I’ve had to bring food over to him several times as he is too invested in exploring the great dome around Beast’s Rest, having sealed himself away from the outside world to the point that anyone else wouldn’t be able to get near him,” she said, both of them quickly travelling to that point of the prison realm with their own abilities, “You don’t need to speak with him now, but it might be a good idea in the near future.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Continue watching him. Has Min Lian done anything strange while I was distracted?”
“She has been meditating in wait for you, and I think that speaking to her soon would also be wise.”
“That much is obvious. Could you tell her that she may need to spend some more time here? I’m not certain how well any kind of assistant figure could fit in to my current circumstances, and since we would be under the jurisdiction of Luo Lia Kun even if I manage to get her in, there would be many times when she will need to get quite far away from me. I’m not certain that would be safe until she reaches the fourth realm, at which point her existence will be entirely stabilised by the active core,” Wei Yi explained, although it was highly likely that the spatial spirit had already come to understand some of Min Lian’s nature even if she had no awareness of it before.
“Of course, I will do so the moment that I am certain that the energy you sent here won’t go berserk in any fashion. I will also attempt to refine the energy in a certain manner that would leave some for you to use, as I understand that you require a breakthrough as soon as possible,” the spatial spirit said, “Just don’t forget about that woman. As with most assassins, her mind was affected for the sake of controlling her entirely, and since you have mostly replaced her memories of her master with yourself, she is, rather unfortunately, dependant on you in more ways than one. Take care of her.”
Wei Yi nodded, then brought her focus out of the spatial realm and back to reality, where the phoenix mirage was only beginning to fade due to the different speed of time within the prison realm whenever she entered it.
She retreated to her seat and continued to watch the battle, noting that the number of seared marks upon the cores of both combatants had decreased significantly to the point that they no longer used their most powerful attacks, clearly saving them up to unleash one final strike the moment that they thought that they would have the best chance of victory.
As a result, the cloud of planar energy that was left from the many beams was not refilled nor reinforced by any further attacks, and while it did not dissipate due to being within the range of his control of planar energy, Shi Taihao did not appear to realize that anything had occurred, likely making the exact same mistake that so many warriors in the world did and failing to confirm their surroundings at all times with their spiritual perception, a flaw that could easily extend up to the seventh realm so long as someone didn’t put in the effort to refine their abilities a little like Wei Yi did. The Oblivion Halo realm would grant a great range of spiritual perception and an immense amount of power that would make it highly difficult not to constantly understand at least a small space around the cultivator.
Furthermore, that great amount of power would be unlikely to leave one’s mind as simple as before.
It was almost twenty minutes later that the moment of final confrontation finally seemed to come about, and Shi Taihao initiated it, all but one of his remaining searing marks dimming as a great burst of light surged from him, containing the light of every single mark and soaring into the sky.
“Now, don’t you dare stand still, Luo Lia Kun!”
“What?” the vice-leader questioned, hesitating for a moment as she couldn’t guess whether the man was being a fool that intended to use his power to intimidate her into doing the wrong thing, or if he was trying to trick her by making it seem like he was doing the former whereas it would be more beneficial to do the opposite.
That was exactly the effect he had required, for the moment that the blinding light from his body made contact with the gathering of energy above him, his victory would be assured.
Before she had the opportunity to move, once she had concluded that it would be wiser to move away than to stand still, especially if the attack was to be similar to the multiple beams that he had used previously, one final, wide, seemingly all-encompassing beam fell from the sky, crashing upon Luo Lia Kun with immense force that seemed sufficient to shatter not just her every bone, but also obliterate all that remained of the arena floor beneath them, finally collapsing the damaged structure.
“This- why’re you hitting me? What do you mean she-”
From the light, a figure emerged at great speed, the whip in her hand following a moment later and wrapping around Shi Taihao’s neck, allowing her to pull him over while channelling her planar energy and the power of a searing mark into a water-like blade, which she aimed directly at his throat.
“You had your chance!” Luo Lia Kun replied, thrusting the blade into him without allowing him any action or words, “I win!”
The water blade pierced directly through his skin, his flesh, the bones in the neck, and then out the other side, requiring only a little more force from the vice-leader to cut through one side and then come back to cut the other way, chopping off his head within a single mighty blow. His head fell onto the ground with his expression radiating shock, rather than pain, loss or disappointment.
Wei Yi understood his silent question better than most, but she wouldn’t bother to answer even if he had won. Instead, she focused on the anchor energy that fell from him, as well as all of the energy that had gathered up within the arena, and willed it to enter the Truth of the Universe before checking the interface that she was quite familiar with now. It confirmed that the anchor energy of someone in a greater realm didn’t affect the number of points she received, and that only those from the Great Families and otherworldly demons with unusual anchors would be able to grant her the same kind of immense reward as the Great Aberrant.
Nevertheless, her total number of anchor points rose to two hundred and sixty-three, giving her significantly more room for exploration and experimentation, although she was still tempted to hold back on trading in any of those until she found it to be absolutely necessary.
‘For now, I need to focus on other things. The moment that some technique of interest appears, I can instantly raise its power to the Full Success stage and elaborate on it myself before completing the process via the combination of the Realm of Potential and the Truth of the Universe,’ she thought, looking around to confirm that nobody had noticed the movement of anchor energy. They did not.
