“Thus, I will be teaching you the first technique on your path to freedom. Train in it diligently, make use of the Pillar of Vitality, and you will be able to equal the second realm without needing either planar energy, or physique energy. After practising for an hour, spend ten minutes practising the Muscle Compression art to condense your training, then you may get back to it. Anyone who does not currently perform another vital role is obligated to partake in this training for four hours a day at the very least, and those that do should spend an hour practising before going to sleep or after waking up. If you have no intent to fight, or believe yourself to lack talent, spend at least one hour nonetheless, as a strong body will help you no matter what you end up doing.”
Wei Yi addressed the people of the prison realm from the base of the Ascendant’s Library, facing neither side but instead looking towards the peaks that separated the two sides of the world, believing that it would be best not to prioritise either side while they were trying to get along better.
She had gathered them there after leaving Chao Ru’s home at night, once both of them had their fun, and entered the prison realm as an idea entered her mind. The main issue with the Energy Pylon physique was that, despite its great range, it couldn’t be used without her presence in that world. As it so happened, the Kong Prison Realm was a high-grade spatial realm that was separate from reality, which meant that it would be difficult to make use of the physique, but then she performed a quick test with the planar anchor mirage in the prison realm.
As it turned out, the conduit of the Energy Pylon physique ability wasn’t the physique energy, but any part of the body, including the flesh, blood, dantian, or even the planar anchor.
This meant that she could easily supply everyone within the prison realm with lifeforce without needing to be there at all times. Naturally, such a realisation prompted another few tests, which allowed her to discover that she was able to siphon lifeforce from the plants that were slowly attempting to grow within the spatial realm through the anchor as well, which had a somewhat exaggerated range that seemed to match its immense size.
She could also infuse it into weaker plants to allow them to grow more quickly, settle into the world, which would then allow her to harvest their lifeforce at a later point in time, effectively allowing her to rapidly bolster her supply of it if she had to.
Most of the other physique abilities that she had were more difficult to use within the prison realm, although she was able to faintly replicate their abilities using the mirage of the anchor that lit up the entire world. This would produce a significantly weaker effect, much like how the Lion’s Roar technique was far inferior to the physique at the equivalent realm, but with enough refinement and practise it could still serve to permit her to influence the Kong Prison Realm without relying on spatial abilities, Yi Shi Ming, or the limited abilities of her consciousness.
Since she wanted to be certain that nothing could rise within the spatial realm, or enter it from the outside, and overpower her, she needed to be able to use as much of her power there as possible, which naturally led her to envisioning a small pylon of her energy that could permit her to use as much force as her person could produce, while being elsewhere.
There was only one small problem, and that was that she would need to sever a limb in order to achieve this, and then not regenerate the meridians when she recovered the rest of it. The issue was that her energy could be used to refine things that had already left her body, but they could not be stored there, especially considering the long history of things exploding the moments that she added her planar energy to them. To store or even regenerate physique energy, something with meridians had to be present, but there was a certain uniqueness to their structure, especially when it came to her own five networks. In order to guarantee that a set of meridians would be stable, there could only be one of it.
This was what she knew about the matter, and it could easily be wrong, since few would be able to recover their bodies at the same speed as she and the Greats were able to and would thus have few test subjects, but she suspected it to be accurate. There had to be a reason why so few had ever messed around with meridians as she had done when creating her body cultivation technique, and why adding a second set put such immense pressure on the body.
It once again amazed her that the addition of the four sets hadn’t outright killed her then and there.
“Now, return to your lands and work hard. I shall return here when I finally arrive at a suitable location for our exit, or when there is another significant development that I wish to share with you.”
With that, she willed the gateway array to appear beneath her feet, and left the prison realm without another word, exiting into the Planar Continents, some distance from the Luo District, where she had once more set up some arrays… or so most would assume, as she intentionally displayed that image behind herself when she disappeared.
It wouldn’t do to make it seem like she was someone lazy or otherwise failing to actively pursue her goals, which is how some may interpret the fact that she chose to go straight to Aimi Miyu instead of the outer world.
At the moment, the Antanorden woman was within Fu Zan’s shop, sitting there opposite him as he was displaying a new product to her. Since the last time that Wei Yi had seen her in person, she had removed the overly delicate gown that she seemed to have appeared in the world with and instead wore something that looked like it was right out of the other world that she and Fu Zan came from. A short skirt descended to her knees, forcing her to keep her legs closed, and a simple white blouse covered her upper body, partially revealing a hint of a white bra beneath it.
“So, these tights are the same as on Orbis?” Aimi Miyu asked, feeling the dark fabric with one hand, “And you can make them out of… that stuff?”
“Yeah, it’s my otherworldly gift, as Wei Yi calls them. Yours doesn’t seem too bad, though.”
She shook her head immediately, rising quickly to put the new item on, “That’s nonsense. I can only identify things that I already know, and if I get it wrong, then it will still tell me the same thing with absolute certainty. I was so certain that the Entropic Propulsion thing she mentioned was real, but apparently it is something called Emergent Anchor instead…”
“How did you not realise that she was messing with you after that Absolute Sexual Satisfaction thing?”
“I… shut up!”
Wei Yi, who was watching this from the side, noted her blush and the momentary bite of her lower lip, and was almost certain that her earlier guess regarding her preferences was accurate.
However, she couldn’t figure out exactly why she would be this insistent on hiding them, no matter what the outlook on such things could have been on their original world. She wasn’t sure whether this was due to being unable to come to terms with the fact that she was now in another world, some internal belief of hers that she hadn’t yet revealed, or another reason entirely, but if she was to be of any use, it wouldn’t do for her to get distracted by such things.
That would be something to figure out later, once that otherworldly gift was tested further.
“Alright, they’re on! How do I look?” Miyu asked, showing off the black tights with a proud expression, as if she had done something besides just putting them on.
“Hm… I think that if you put these on as well, you will look much better,” Fu Zan stated with a pair of high heels in hand, “That Wei Yi is very fond of them, but if you aren’t, I also have these shoes that look similar with far smaller heels.”
“Wei Yi is?” Aimi Miyu had initially looked at the first set of footwear without any interest, but that phrase quickly made her disregard the second set and focus on the first with involuntarily glistening eyes, “Well, back on Orbis I’d not really wear such things, since I could never figure out how to walk normally in them and I didn’t leave the house much, but now that I am in a world like this, I should try new things. Give those to me.”
“I wouldn’t recommend that,” Wei Yi said, choosing to enter the conversation now, “I can – and do – walk in them for the purpose of a technique, whereas you would just ruin your legs for no reason.”
The Antanorden woman nearly dropped the pair of high heels in surprise, falling back down to her seat, “S-Since when have you been there?”
“Since a minute or two ago. I wanted to confirm whether you’ve been settling in well, and whether you’d be interested in having something to do within the prison realm so that you don’t just spend the rest of your days sitting about and doing nothing.”
“What do you mean by the rest of my days?”
“I’m not letting you out of here until I can figure out a way to remove the corruptive azure light from your body, and that might be impossible without killing you. As a result, you may need to stay here permanently. At the moment, the quantity of resources here is rather limited, even if they are able to grow, and as much, we may not be able to provide you with as much food as you might need or want if you don’t do something to deserve it,” Wei Yi explained, taking advantage of a moment in which Miyu looked down in horror to glare at Fu Zan to prevent him from talking, “You can identify anything so long as you have the correct information, which is why I can provide you with a lot of accurate facts. If you then put that to good use, you can live as comfortably as this fellow over here.”
“Do… Do I have to?”
“Didn’t I just answer this?”
“No, I am asking whether somebody else might be able to house me like… well, for instance, the Great Fam-”
“The Greats want to kill you, destroy your otherworldly gift, and ensure that none of your kind may ever appear within the Planar Continents again. Depending on the kinds of people that end up here, I’m frankly not against the last part, and depending on how much you miss your original world, you may not be against it either,” she cut her off, “Regardless, if you want to keep your life, that wouldn’t work.”
“That, and, as I told you, she has a rather major grudge with the Greats,” Fu Zan added, “She wouldn’t allow someone useful to come into their hands regardless of their future treatment of you.”
‘Good, it seems that he has figured out what I’m doing, and isn’t against it. Good job, you otherworldly moron,’ Wei Yi jokingly praised the man in her mind before turning back to Miyu, “The other factions in the world are also unlikely to look at a naïve, silly otherworldly demon as anything other than a threat or an opportunity to exploit you in all kinds of embarrassing ways. The moment that you accidentally spill that you are not interested in women, they’ll make you constantly travel everywhere with an escort of naked, beautiful ladies constantly tempting you with mental techniques.”
“No, that can’t be something that any sane man or woman would do!”
“Oh, but why do you assume that everyone here is sane? Why do you assume that your definition of sanity aligns with that of another person? Your actions might be sane from your point of view, but in the eyes of another, that will be far from the case.”
“Then I will follow you! Protect me from the horrible seductresses!” Miyu begged, dropping to the ground with her knees, head and hands placed onto the wooden floor, “… ow.”
“Get up. We don’t need you dirtying the floors like that. So, how fond are you of reading?”
“I love reading! I was top of my class at Otsuma and Senshu!”
Wei Yi had never heard of such things, she could do little more that shrug, “Uh… I’ll assume that’s a good thing. Anyway, let me give you some accurate documents to read through, and then you can get on with it. I expect you to read them in great detail, and to have at least four of them completed by the time I check your progress in a few days. Is that all clear, Aimi Miyu?”
“Absolutely! I will not let you down! I mean… I’ll make sure to be useful, so that I can eat!”
“Mhm,” she pretended not to notice the obvious blush that appeared on the woman’s face, raising one hand and focusing an immense quantity of killing intent into the shape of pages, then books, forming a total of a dozen tomes on the basics of the Planar Continents, planar cultivation, physiques, bloodlines and whatever else that she felt confident in including, as there were still certain facts that she couldn’t be certain about and really didn’t want to ruin the perfect abilities that Miyu possessed.
Although the way in which the Antanorden woman was so easily flustered was something that she wanted to improve, it was somewhat pleasant to be on the receiving side of what she had experienced during her meetings with Chu Ling, where her young mind was rather unprepared to deal with her visage and body.
It was, in a way, yet another depiction of the way in which power could come from anything, even something as simple as looking pretty. With just that much, an inexperienced individual could be incapacitated, effectively becoming malleable according to her will, although she doubted that most would be quite as susceptible to appearances as those that had as little understanding or acceptance of themselves as Yi Wei and this Aimi Miyu, since one of them hadn’t had the time to explore herself while the other appeared to be reluctant to accept it.
Still, she had experienced quite a few improvements in appearance over essentially every single cultivation path that she had taken, so she knew that she would eventually get even more attractive, if that was even possible. Perhaps at the ninth realm, a single glance from her could seduce the world.
‘Silly, but this sort of thing would certainly help in certain situations.’
For now, she couldn’t do much more than provide as much accurate information to Miyu as she could, then let her learn all of it. Eventually, if the otherworldly demon learned all of it, she would be able to effectively assess any situation and prevent Wei Yi from falling into traps, or being deceived by either illusions or tricks, no matter how complex or simple.
At that point, she would have yet another magnificent weapon against the Greats, against any ancient creatures and entities that might awaken during the course of her pursuits, or even against the Hunger of the Beyond, if she needed to combat them at some point in the future. Whatever their tactics or methods, so long as she could provide sufficient data for the otherworldly demon to be able to use her gift and to possess sufficient accuracy, she could instantly see through every single falsehood that they might present.
‘Or rather, I’d hope that this could happen, but it might be that she needs to see something in person in order to understand it, or perhaps she can only see very rudimentary information… Many tests will need to be done, just not yet,’ she looked at the Antanorden woman eagerly accepting the books and sneakily glancing at Wei Yi as she did so, and sighed internally, “Go on, get to work.”
“Yes, boss! Wait, can I call you that?”
“Sure, do whatever. I’ll be speaking with Fu Zan here, so if you could use the back room, or some other area, that’d be great.”
Miyu nodded, running off to let them talk, although she did sneak one glance back at her before she forced her gaze back to her front and slightly struck her cheek with the book that she had decided to hold in her right hand. Once she shut the door behind herself, Wei Yi was able to move on.
“Fu Zan, those tights – do you have a spare?”
“Did you like them?”
“They look nice, and I see no reason not to grant myself more layers given that I’m already starting to put things on. It’ll make for yet another nice feature for my current identity in the Planar Continents.”
“Please tell me you’re not going to act like that woman…”
“Nope, not doing that. I am fully capable of admitting what I do and do not like, especially when you’re not someone in any position to act against me with whatever information I may provide you with, and perhaps I will come to like that thin material on my legs, whether it is the appearance or the effect that will impress me more,” Wei Yi explained, “Also, you noticed her behaviour as well?”
“Yeah, it’d be hard not to. Is she… well, interested in you in that way?” Fu Zan asked while he removed another pair of tights from a large pile of clothing and items that was forming beside him after a long day of work.
“Not necessarily me, but it does appear to be the case. Does Antanord have some problem with it?”
He shrugged, “I’m not really sure when it comes to her. It could be that her parents were strict and traditional, or something along those lines, but, frankly, I’m not even certain that we’re from the same world as one another.”
“Not the same world? Considering the fact that you and she speak the same Antanorden, can casually converse about your own world, and are not surprised in the slightest at one another’s otherworldly oddities, preferences and, in your case, clothing, it would be very hard to convince me that you are not from the same world… Unless you suppose that there may be multiple Orbises?”
“I don’t know, but that’s not an uncommon trope in many stories, and it would hardly be strange considering everything that’s already happening. It’s just that there are a few times when she mentioned something that contradicted my knowledge, and I could tell that there were some times when she came across the exact same thing. When we had a brief conversation at the start to make sure that we weren’t making some mistake, some of her important dates were off by several days, like the end of the world wars, the invention of computers and the internet, that sort of stuff.”
“Do remember that I know the words and their definitions, but not what they actually are.”
“Right… It doesn’t really matter right now, though. The point is that we may be from different versions of the same world, or two worlds that are extremely alike, or we could just have terrible memories when it comes to dates,” he suggested.
“Coincidences like that, especially when they seem to point themselves out to you, are not something to be ignored in this world,” Wei Yi replied, frowning, “That being said, we are looking too far into something like this when the original question was why Aimi Miyu would be so keen to not appear to be interested in another woman, so that we could use this information to help her break out of that unfortunate shell.”
“Oh, is that what you’re planning to do? I… probably shouldn’t be stating exactly what I thought you’d do…”
“If you thought I was going to seduce her, then, most likely, no. I can hardly enter any semblance of a proper relationship any time soon, and I cannot say that I feel very comfortable going out with an otherworldly demon like her. Too much of a gap in pretty much every way, you see,” she said, glancing towards the back-room door, “Also, I don’t see much chemistry between us.”
“I suppose…”
Seeing that the man had nothing more to ask, she raised the black tights that he had given her, “Now, these are made from some of the metal materials that I had provided to you, correct?”
“Yes, they are. Since they’re using the same things that the durable underwear is made from, they should be impervious to common attacks, and difficult to damage with stronger ones, although I don’t know how true that is at your level. I’m also not certain how well they will handle your own energy, or any physical expansion that might occur in regard to musculature, but they should be good in high temperatures, if nothing else.”
“Excellent. I will test them for you, so prepare to receive a report on your successes and failures the next time I’m around. Also, don’t forget to do the regular exercises that I have mandated for everyone. It isn’t a form of cultivation – technically, anyway – so it shouldn’t worsen the otherworldly gift’s influence, while also increasing your stamina and strength, which will be very necessary the moment that you need to mass-produce some major order per my request,” Wei Yi informed him, storing the tights and some other items of interest to her within the House of Gold for later viewing and inspection, “Now, anything else to report, or was that everything?”
“Nothing… Will you let us see the outside world at some point?”
“Probably. However, I do not want to let any of you out due to the possibility of the azure lights getting more uppity within a superior realm, so you will not see it in person until I remove it from your bodies.”
“Wouldn’t that make our abilities… not work?”
“No, not at all. At that point, you will be able to safely cultivate, and as your power increases, so will the power of the otherworldly gift. My House of Gold belonged to an otherworldly demon like yourself, giving him an infinite amount of space to work with, filled with all kinds of treasures, but when I took over, most of them disintegrated, and the size shrunk immensely. However, as I get stronger, it is also growing, and when you have a similarly great amount of energy in the ninth realm as the azure lights possess, you will be able to make use of most of the gift’s potential on your own.”
“Alright… By that point, what would the planar energy concentration within the prison realm look like? Would there be enough for it to be forming solid structures in places where it is particularly dense?” he asked.
“I’ll be going for crystalline structures myself, but we’ll see, eventually.”
She willed another gateway to appear beneath herself, although this time she didn’t bother with a fake background to her teleportation, since Fu Zan was already well aware of the slight deception that she was presenting to the others, albeit lacking the knowledge of Yi Shi Ming. That gap in his knowledge was somewhat filled by the different experiences of the world he originated from, where a number of significantly stranger events were documented within fictional tales and thus changed the way in which someone looked at the world.
This wasn’t always a positive improvement, since their Orbis seemed to be fond of complex plots and immensely deep conspiracies that would rarely truly occur within reality. The Greats were one of the few to truly exist beneath so many things and prevent the development of the world from occurring, while most groups would often prefer to do far simpler things, like killing an enemy instead of executing a complex plan to get someone else to do the same while thinking that they were saving the world.
Wei Yi was keen to comprehend the kinds of plots that those from another world were able to think of, but she would need to temper it with reason that they struggled to incorporate at times.
‘I’ll need to get him a lot of paper to copy whatever stories he can remember at some later time, but for now, I should take advantage of the time until day within the Planar Continents,’ she glanced out of the prison realm for a moment to confirm that it was still some time from day and sat down on the ground, far away from any life so far as she was able to tell through her sight of the prison realm.
The previous day, she had not made full use of the techniques that she had generated, and she wanted to rectify that while she had the chance. Based on her experience of being forced into the Realm of Potential while cultivating through the failed talismans, it seemed that her body was able to continue doing something while she was within that realm, so she naturally wanted to check whether she needed to somehow trigger the Realm of Potential to gain this benefit or if she could use it at any time. If she could train both her techniques and body at the same time, it would naturally raise the efficiency of the process significantly.
Thus, in order to test this as well as possible, she sat down in the place with the greatest concentration of planar energy within the prison realm, set down a few arrays with her spiritual will, then activated as many training techniques at once as she was able to, then entered the Realm of Potential.
Just as the last time that she was here, there was a book floating in the air, although either she had ended up being higher than she had been before, or the book had descended somewhat since she left the realm, as it was once more on the level of her eyes, rather than being unnecessarily high in the air. Its contents were also the same, listing a series of letters, numbers and things resembling normal words, although they were more likely to be the names of locations rather than typical words that one might find in a dictionary.
Since both of her otherworldly demons specialised in languages other than Antanian, she didn’t expect them to be familiar with whatever this book was trying to convey, and as such didn’t ask them about it.
She put the mostly empty tome away and willed a reflection of herself into being, one that wielded the complete set of abilities that she presented to those in her current warrior persona. After a little consideration, she decided that if she was going to go all out in her physical self, Wei Yi would also invest her all into the training of techniques, and thus summoned a dozen more reflections of a similar level of power.
Then, she got to work.
“Thus, I will be teaching you the first technique on your path to freedom. Train in it diligently, make use of the Pillar of Vitality, and you will be able to equal the second realm without needing either planar energy, or physique energy. After practising for an hour, spend ten minutes practising the Muscle Compression art to condense your training, then you may get back to it. Anyone who does not currently perform another vital role is obligated to partake in this training for four hours a day at the very least, and those that do should spend an hour practising before going to sleep or after waking up. If you have no intent to fight, or believe yourself to lack talent, spend at least one hour nonetheless, as a strong body will help you no matter what you end up doing.”
Wei Yi addressed the people of the prison realm from the base of the Ascendant’s Library, facing neither side but instead looking towards the peaks that separated the two sides of the world, believing that it would be best not to prioritise either side while they were trying to get along better.
She had gathered them there after leaving Chao Ru’s home at night, once both of them had their fun, and entered the prison realm as an idea entered her mind. The main issue with the Energy Pylon physique was that, despite its great range, it couldn’t be used without her presence in that world. As it so happened, the Kong Prison Realm was a high-grade spatial realm that was separate from reality, which meant that it would be difficult to make use of the physique, but then she performed a quick test with the planar anchor mirage in the prison realm.
As it turned out, the conduit of the Energy Pylon physique ability wasn’t the physique energy, but any part of the body, including the flesh, blood, dantian, or even the planar anchor.
This meant that she could easily supply everyone within the prison realm with lifeforce without needing to be there at all times. Naturally, such a realisation prompted another few tests, which allowed her to discover that she was able to siphon lifeforce from the plants that were slowly attempting to grow within the spatial realm through the anchor as well, which had a somewhat exaggerated range that seemed to match its immense size.
She could also infuse it into weaker plants to allow them to grow more quickly, settle into the world, which would then allow her to harvest their lifeforce at a later point in time, effectively allowing her to rapidly bolster her supply of it if she had to.
Most of the other physique abilities that she had were more difficult to use within the prison realm, although she was able to faintly replicate their abilities using the mirage of the anchor that lit up the entire world. This would produce a significantly weaker effect, much like how the Lion’s Roar technique was far inferior to the physique at the equivalent realm, but with enough refinement and practise it could still serve to permit her to influence the Kong Prison Realm without relying on spatial abilities, Yi Shi Ming, or the limited abilities of her consciousness.
Since she wanted to be certain that nothing could rise within the spatial realm, or enter it from the outside, and overpower her, she needed to be able to use as much of her power there as possible, which naturally led her to envisioning a small pylon of her energy that could permit her to use as much force as her person could produce, while being elsewhere.
There was only one small problem, and that was that she would need to sever a limb in order to achieve this, and then not regenerate the meridians when she recovered the rest of it. The issue was that her energy could be used to refine things that had already left her body, but they could not be stored there, especially considering the long history of things exploding the moments that she added her planar energy to them. To store or even regenerate physique energy, something with meridians had to be present, but there was a certain uniqueness to their structure, especially when it came to her own five networks. In order to guarantee that a set of meridians would be stable, there could only be one of it.
This was what she knew about the matter, and it could easily be wrong, since few would be able to recover their bodies at the same speed as she and the Greats were able to and would thus have few test subjects, but she suspected it to be accurate. There had to be a reason why so few had ever messed around with meridians as she had done when creating her body cultivation technique, and why adding a second set put such immense pressure on the body.
It once again amazed her that the addition of the four sets hadn’t outright killed her then and there.
“Now, return to your lands and work hard. I shall return here when I finally arrive at a suitable location for our exit, or when there is another significant development that I wish to share with you.”
With that, she willed the gateway array to appear beneath her feet, and left the prison realm without another word, exiting into the Planar Continents, some distance from the Luo District, where she had once more set up some arrays… or so most would assume, as she intentionally displayed that image behind herself when she disappeared.
It wouldn’t do to make it seem like she was someone lazy or otherwise failing to actively pursue her goals, which is how some may interpret the fact that she chose to go straight to Aimi Miyu instead of the outer world.
At the moment, the Antanorden woman was within Fu Zan’s shop, sitting there opposite him as he was displaying a new product to her. Since the last time that Wei Yi had seen her in person, she had removed the overly delicate gown that she seemed to have appeared in the world with and instead wore something that looked like it was right out of the other world that she and Fu Zan came from. A short skirt descended to her knees, forcing her to keep her legs closed, and a simple white blouse covered her upper body, partially revealing a hint of a white bra beneath it.
“So, these tights are the same as on Orbis?” Aimi Miyu asked, feeling the dark fabric with one hand, “And you can make them out of… that stuff?”
“Yeah, it’s my otherworldly gift, as Wei Yi calls them. Yours doesn’t seem too bad, though.”
She shook her head immediately, rising quickly to put the new item on, “That’s nonsense. I can only identify things that I already know, and if I get it wrong, then it will still tell me the same thing with absolute certainty. I was so certain that the Entropic Propulsion thing she mentioned was real, but apparently it is something called Emergent Anchor instead…”
“How did you not realise that she was messing with you after that Absolute Sexual Satisfaction thing?”
“I… shut up!”
Wei Yi, who was watching this from the side, noted her blush and the momentary bite of her lower lip, and was almost certain that her earlier guess regarding her preferences was accurate.
However, she couldn’t figure out exactly why she would be this insistent on hiding them, no matter what the outlook on such things could have been on their original world. She wasn’t sure whether this was due to being unable to come to terms with the fact that she was now in another world, some internal belief of hers that she hadn’t yet revealed, or another reason entirely, but if she was to be of any use, it wouldn’t do for her to get distracted by such things.
That would be something to figure out later, once that otherworldly gift was tested further.
“Alright, they’re on! How do I look?” Miyu asked, showing off the black tights with a proud expression, as if she had done something besides just putting them on.
“Hm… I think that if you put these on as well, you will look much better,” Fu Zan stated with a pair of high heels in hand, “That Wei Yi is very fond of them, but if you aren’t, I also have these shoes that look similar with far smaller heels.”
“Wei Yi is?” Aimi Miyu had initially looked at the first set of footwear without any interest, but that phrase quickly made her disregard the second set and focus on the first with involuntarily glistening eyes, “Well, back on Orbis I’d not really wear such things, since I could never figure out how to walk normally in them and I didn’t leave the house much, but now that I am in a world like this, I should try new things. Give those to me.”
“I wouldn’t recommend that,” Wei Yi said, choosing to enter the conversation now, “I can – and do – walk in them for the purpose of a technique, whereas you would just ruin your legs for no reason.”
The Antanorden woman nearly dropped the pair of high heels in surprise, falling back down to her seat, “S-Since when have you been there?”
“Since a minute or two ago. I wanted to confirm whether you’ve been settling in well, and whether you’d be interested in having something to do within the prison realm so that you don’t just spend the rest of your days sitting about and doing nothing.”
“What do you mean by the rest of my days?”
“I’m not letting you out of here until I can figure out a way to remove the corruptive azure light from your body, and that might be impossible without killing you. As a result, you may need to stay here permanently. At the moment, the quantity of resources here is rather limited, even if they are able to grow, and as much, we may not be able to provide you with as much food as you might need or want if you don’t do something to deserve it,” Wei Yi explained, taking advantage of a moment in which Miyu looked down in horror to glare at Fu Zan to prevent him from talking, “You can identify anything so long as you have the correct information, which is why I can provide you with a lot of accurate facts. If you then put that to good use, you can live as comfortably as this fellow over here.”
“Do… Do I have to?”
“Didn’t I just answer this?”
“No, I am asking whether somebody else might be able to house me like… well, for instance, the Great Fam-”
“The Greats want to kill you, destroy your otherworldly gift, and ensure that none of your kind may ever appear within the Planar Continents again. Depending on the kinds of people that end up here, I’m frankly not against the last part, and depending on how much you miss your original world, you may not be against it either,” she cut her off, “Regardless, if you want to keep your life, that wouldn’t work.”
“That, and, as I told you, she has a rather major grudge with the Greats,” Fu Zan added, “She wouldn’t allow someone useful to come into their hands regardless of their future treatment of you.”
‘Good, it seems that he has figured out what I’m doing, and isn’t against it. Good job, you otherworldly moron,’ Wei Yi jokingly praised the man in her mind before turning back to Miyu, “The other factions in the world are also unlikely to look at a naïve, silly otherworldly demon as anything other than a threat or an opportunity to exploit you in all kinds of embarrassing ways. The moment that you accidentally spill that you are not interested in women, they’ll make you constantly travel everywhere with an escort of naked, beautiful ladies constantly tempting you with mental techniques.”
“No, that can’t be something that any sane man or woman would do!”
“Oh, but why do you assume that everyone here is sane? Why do you assume that your definition of sanity aligns with that of another person? Your actions might be sane from your point of view, but in the eyes of another, that will be far from the case.”
“Then I will follow you! Protect me from the horrible seductresses!” Miyu begged, dropping to the ground with her knees, head and hands placed onto the wooden floor, “… ow.”
“Get up. We don’t need you dirtying the floors like that. So, how fond are you of reading?”
“I love reading! I was top of my class at Otsuma and Senshu!”
Wei Yi had never heard of such things, she could do little more that shrug, “Uh… I’ll assume that’s a good thing. Anyway, let me give you some accurate documents to read through, and then you can get on with it. I expect you to read them in great detail, and to have at least four of them completed by the time I check your progress in a few days. Is that all clear, Aimi Miyu?”
“Absolutely! I will not let you down! I mean… I’ll make sure to be useful, so that I can eat!”
“Mhm,” she pretended not to notice the obvious blush that appeared on the woman’s face, raising one hand and focusing an immense quantity of killing intent into the shape of pages, then books, forming a total of a dozen tomes on the basics of the Planar Continents, planar cultivation, physiques, bloodlines and whatever else that she felt confident in including, as there were still certain facts that she couldn’t be certain about and really didn’t want to ruin the perfect abilities that Miyu possessed.
Although the way in which the Antanorden woman was so easily flustered was something that she wanted to improve, it was somewhat pleasant to be on the receiving side of what she had experienced during her meetings with Chu Ling, where her young mind was rather unprepared to deal with her visage and body.
It was, in a way, yet another depiction of the way in which power could come from anything, even something as simple as looking pretty. With just that much, an inexperienced individual could be incapacitated, effectively becoming malleable according to her will, although she doubted that most would be quite as susceptible to appearances as those that had as little understanding or acceptance of themselves as Yi Wei and this Aimi Miyu, since one of them hadn’t had the time to explore herself while the other appeared to be reluctant to accept it.
Still, she had experienced quite a few improvements in appearance over essentially every single cultivation path that she had taken, so she knew that she would eventually get even more attractive, if that was even possible. Perhaps at the ninth realm, a single glance from her could seduce the world.
‘Silly, but this sort of thing would certainly help in certain situations.’
For now, she couldn’t do much more than provide as much accurate information to Miyu as she could, then let her learn all of it. Eventually, if the otherworldly demon learned all of it, she would be able to effectively assess any situation and prevent Wei Yi from falling into traps, or being deceived by either illusions or tricks, no matter how complex or simple.
At that point, she would have yet another magnificent weapon against the Greats, against any ancient creatures and entities that might awaken during the course of her pursuits, or even against the Hunger of the Beyond, if she needed to combat them at some point in the future. Whatever their tactics or methods, so long as she could provide sufficient data for the otherworldly demon to be able to use her gift and to possess sufficient accuracy, she could instantly see through every single falsehood that they might present.
‘Or rather, I’d hope that this could happen, but it might be that she needs to see something in person in order to understand it, or perhaps she can only see very rudimentary information… Many tests will need to be done, just not yet,’ she looked at the Antanorden woman eagerly accepting the books and sneakily glancing at Wei Yi as she did so, and sighed internally, “Go on, get to work.”
“Yes, boss! Wait, can I call you that?”
“Sure, do whatever. I’ll be speaking with Fu Zan here, so if you could use the back room, or some other area, that’d be great.”
Miyu nodded, running off to let them talk, although she did sneak one glance back at her before she forced her gaze back to her front and slightly struck her cheek with the book that she had decided to hold in her right hand. Once she shut the door behind herself, Wei Yi was able to move on.
“Fu Zan, those tights – do you have a spare?”
“Did you like them?”
“They look nice, and I see no reason not to grant myself more layers given that I’m already starting to put things on. It’ll make for yet another nice feature for my current identity in the Planar Continents.”
“Please tell me you’re not going to act like that woman…”
“Nope, not doing that. I am fully capable of admitting what I do and do not like, especially when you’re not someone in any position to act against me with whatever information I may provide you with, and perhaps I will come to like that thin material on my legs, whether it is the appearance or the effect that will impress me more,” Wei Yi explained, “Also, you noticed her behaviour as well?”
“Yeah, it’d be hard not to. Is she… well, interested in you in that way?” Fu Zan asked while he removed another pair of tights from a large pile of clothing and items that was forming beside him after a long day of work.
“Not necessarily me, but it does appear to be the case. Does Antanord have some problem with it?”
He shrugged, “I’m not really sure when it comes to her. It could be that her parents were strict and traditional, or something along those lines, but, frankly, I’m not even certain that we’re from the same world as one another.”
“Not the same world? Considering the fact that you and she speak the same Antanorden, can casually converse about your own world, and are not surprised in the slightest at one another’s otherworldly oddities, preferences and, in your case, clothing, it would be very hard to convince me that you are not from the same world… Unless you suppose that there may be multiple Orbises?”
“I don’t know, but that’s not an uncommon trope in many stories, and it would hardly be strange considering everything that’s already happening. It’s just that there are a few times when she mentioned something that contradicted my knowledge, and I could tell that there were some times when she came across the exact same thing. When we had a brief conversation at the start to make sure that we weren’t making some mistake, some of her important dates were off by several days, like the end of the world wars, the invention of computers and the internet, that sort of stuff.”
“Do remember that I know the words and their definitions, but not what they actually are.”
“Right… It doesn’t really matter right now, though. The point is that we may be from different versions of the same world, or two worlds that are extremely alike, or we could just have terrible memories when it comes to dates,” he suggested.
“Coincidences like that, especially when they seem to point themselves out to you, are not something to be ignored in this world,” Wei Yi replied, frowning, “That being said, we are looking too far into something like this when the original question was why Aimi Miyu would be so keen to not appear to be interested in another woman, so that we could use this information to help her break out of that unfortunate shell.”
“Oh, is that what you’re planning to do? I… probably shouldn’t be stating exactly what I thought you’d do…”
“If you thought I was going to seduce her, then, most likely, no. I can hardly enter any semblance of a proper relationship any time soon, and I cannot say that I feel very comfortable going out with an otherworldly demon like her. Too much of a gap in pretty much every way, you see,” she said, glancing towards the back-room door, “Also, I don’t see much chemistry between us.”
“I suppose…”
Seeing that the man had nothing more to ask, she raised the black tights that he had given her, “Now, these are made from some of the metal materials that I had provided to you, correct?”
“Yes, they are. Since they’re using the same things that the durable underwear is made from, they should be impervious to common attacks, and difficult to damage with stronger ones, although I don’t know how true that is at your level. I’m also not certain how well they will handle your own energy, or any physical expansion that might occur in regard to musculature, but they should be good in high temperatures, if nothing else.”
“Excellent. I will test them for you, so prepare to receive a report on your successes and failures the next time I’m around. Also, don’t forget to do the regular exercises that I have mandated for everyone. It isn’t a form of cultivation – technically, anyway – so it shouldn’t worsen the otherworldly gift’s influence, while also increasing your stamina and strength, which will be very necessary the moment that you need to mass-produce some major order per my request,” Wei Yi informed him, storing the tights and some other items of interest to her within the House of Gold for later viewing and inspection, “Now, anything else to report, or was that everything?”
“Nothing… Will you let us see the outside world at some point?”
“Probably. However, I do not want to let any of you out due to the possibility of the azure lights getting more uppity within a superior realm, so you will not see it in person until I remove it from your bodies.”
“Wouldn’t that make our abilities… not work?”
“No, not at all. At that point, you will be able to safely cultivate, and as your power increases, so will the power of the otherworldly gift. My House of Gold belonged to an otherworldly demon like yourself, giving him an infinite amount of space to work with, filled with all kinds of treasures, but when I took over, most of them disintegrated, and the size shrunk immensely. However, as I get stronger, it is also growing, and when you have a similarly great amount of energy in the ninth realm as the azure lights possess, you will be able to make use of most of the gift’s potential on your own.”
“Alright… By that point, what would the planar energy concentration within the prison realm look like? Would there be enough for it to be forming solid structures in places where it is particularly dense?” he asked.
“I’ll be going for crystalline structures myself, but we’ll see, eventually.”
She willed another gateway to appear beneath herself, although this time she didn’t bother with a fake background to her teleportation, since Fu Zan was already well aware of the slight deception that she was presenting to the others, albeit lacking the knowledge of Yi Shi Ming. That gap in his knowledge was somewhat filled by the different experiences of the world he originated from, where a number of significantly stranger events were documented within fictional tales and thus changed the way in which someone looked at the world.
This wasn’t always a positive improvement, since their Orbis seemed to be fond of complex plots and immensely deep conspiracies that would rarely truly occur within reality. The Greats were one of the few to truly exist beneath so many things and prevent the development of the world from occurring, while most groups would often prefer to do far simpler things, like killing an enemy instead of executing a complex plan to get someone else to do the same while thinking that they were saving the world.
Wei Yi was keen to comprehend the kinds of plots that those from another world were able to think of, but she would need to temper it with reason that they struggled to incorporate at times.
‘I’ll need to get him a lot of paper to copy whatever stories he can remember at some later time, but for now, I should take advantage of the time until day within the Planar Continents,’ she glanced out of the prison realm for a moment to confirm that it was still some time from day and sat down on the ground, far away from any life so far as she was able to tell through her sight of the prison realm.
The previous day, she had not made full use of the techniques that she had generated, and she wanted to rectify that while she had the chance. Based on her experience of being forced into the Realm of Potential while cultivating through the failed talismans, it seemed that her body was able to continue doing something while she was within that realm, so she naturally wanted to check whether she needed to somehow trigger the Realm of Potential to gain this benefit or if she could use it at any time. If she could train both her techniques and body at the same time, it would naturally raise the efficiency of the process significantly.
Thus, in order to test this as well as possible, she sat down in the place with the greatest concentration of planar energy within the prison realm, set down a few arrays with her spiritual will, then activated as many training techniques at once as she was able to, then entered the Realm of Potential.
Just as the last time that she was here, there was a book floating in the air, although either she had ended up being higher than she had been before, or the book had descended somewhat since she left the realm, as it was once more on the level of her eyes, rather than being unnecessarily high in the air. Its contents were also the same, listing a series of letters, numbers and things resembling normal words, although they were more likely to be the names of locations rather than typical words that one might find in a dictionary.
Since both of her otherworldly demons specialised in languages other than Antanian, she didn’t expect them to be familiar with whatever this book was trying to convey, and as such didn’t ask them about it.
She put the mostly empty tome away and willed a reflection of herself into being, one that wielded the complete set of abilities that she presented to those in her current warrior persona. After a little consideration, she decided that if she was going to go all out in her physical self, Wei Yi would also invest her all into the training of techniques, and thus summoned a dozen more reflections of a similar level of power.
Then, she got to work.
