V4C19: Unwelcome Entrance
A little while later, the Ascendant’s Arbiters that were masquerading around as the Hunters of the Cosmos also all awoke and got around to doing their own tasks, with just a few finding that the sand on one side of the camp looked a little strange, as if something had dripped into a pool of water that was then frozen mid-motion and turned to sand.
They didn’t know the cause, as sound had been completely prevented from exiting the many layers of barriers even if the light did pierce some, nor did they find any reason for concern as Wei Yi and Great Dark both appeared to be entirely unphased by the matter even as they walked near that area several times, so it was promptly ignored. It didn’t take long for the wind and scattered sand from the sandstorm to clear the phenomenon away, making it look entirely ordinary, so in just an hour after most of them had woken up, it was only present in their memories.
For some time, it was pleasantly quiet, without any interruptions or sudden attacks from other forces, allowing everyone to relax almost as much as they could within the Kong Prison Realm and Paragon, although they had to maintain an alert look on the surface as to not be caught out by the other groups.
That was the case for most of them, but Wei Yi was met by Shi Bao Ya, who had come exactly when she had said she would. She was standing with some excitement at the side of the tent’s entrance, waiting to be allowed inside, so Chao Ru was let out of the tent first before one of the leading members of the Flood Kings of Shi was allowed in.
“Have you had a good night, Wei Yi?” she asked once she entered and found a place to sit.
“As good as any, I suppose. Since you want to talk to me, would you mind explaining what it is you even want to discuss?”
“Well, I do think I should tell you something, at the very least. To disturb you from your guard duties, and anything else you need to do in the camp, I shouldn’t just keep you guessing,” Shi Bao Ya nodded, gesturing towards the other stool in the tent, “You might want to sit down near me.”
That still didn’t tell her what she wanted, but Wei Yi figured that she might as well go along with it for now and let this continue on without interruptions. Whatever the woman wanted, she didn’t see anything suspicious on her body nor did she appear capable of harming her in any way, so unless Shi Bao Ya had an otherworldly gift somewhere on her without the Truth of the Universe noticing it and trembling in response, she had no power over Wei Yi.
“I had asked you about the Shi family when we had first met. This is related to that, and to some of the rumours that go around about our family… especially in our own district, as unfortunate as that is.”
Wei Yi shrugged before she could get too far, “I’m not from Yi City. I don’t know much about it.”
“Yes, of course. The reputation that we have is regarding our looks. You might have noticed that we all look… no nice way to put this, but we look absolutely stunning, to the point that some of the people around us look practically dull in comparison, even if they are rather gorgeous in their own right,” Shi Bao Ya explained, “Most of us would say that the rumours had been started by jealous men and women whose partners or lovers had been stolen away by our family in the past due to their superior appearances, but… there is some truth to the rumours.”
“Which I have still not heard. I could have understood something from this if you didn’t keep beating around the bush. Even the gracious sands won’t stay still for eternity.”
“Indeed, sorry about that. The rumour that is most common is that of a curse, or some vile force, that had allowed us to obtain these appearances all those decades ago, and made them dominant in our family,” she said, although she hardly needed to continue at that point, “I have found that there is a trace of truth to the words that they say. Something had affected us before, and it might either still be present, or it could return at any point.”
‘Yi Shi Ming, you were fucking right. Why did you have to be right?’ Wei Yi said to the spatial spirit while she faked an expression of continued confusion, “What kind of curse makes one look attractive? Most people would rather take it, wouldn’t they?”
“The curse was that it had to be stolen from others, and that it had to be stolen constantly and endlessly if the appearances were to be maintained. Supposedly, our Shi family had once been some of the ugliest people on the continent, but that effect had changed it, and we are now the complete opposite,” Shi Bao Ya sighed, “Most of us don’t care to do much, but I want to find out more. I’d like to understand whether this is necessarily true, and, if it is and it is possible to disperse the curse entirely, whether it would be possible to attain beauty some other way. You happen to possess it, and you say you’ve never heard of us before, so if you could tell me everything you know about your own appearance, that might help our district immensely. Maybe the others would finally listen if they didn’t need to risk losing their pretty faces, large boobs and whatever else.”
That was one of the nobler causes that Wei Yi had come across in some time, as it going successfully would permit everyone in the Shi family that had gotten used to fantastical appearances keep onto them regardless of the initial cause, while clearing away the rumours of a curse by having something else to show in reply.
However, Wei Yi had attainted her own appearance though a combination of cultivation methods, a physique, and a lot of other factors that were rather difficult to explain or mention. It could be of use to that family, but it would also risk exposing secrets and might cause them to seek even further perfection beyond a healthy level, potentially reigniting whatever had begun their curse in the first place.
As such, she decided to be polite and diplomatic in her reply, “I can’t really tell you much. I was born like this, then I did some cultivation, got the Titanic Demolisher physique, and here I am. Also, curse or not, something that enters the blood tends to stay in it. Unless you wish to ruin your own family’s seed entirely, the good looks will likely remain.”
“That… was what I was afraid you’d say. Natural beauty is a hard thing to deal with, and I have heard of your physique before. It doesn’t change facial features nearly to the extent that they might make you look that good, if at all,” Shi Bao Ya sighed again, looking down in slight but momentary defeat, “While I have enough evidence of something having changed our appearances immensely, I know that nobody would ever dare touch it due to the risk of undoing its effects, even if that makes little sense. I suppose I’ll just have to look elsewhere then. Thank you anyway, Wei Yi.”
Her saddened expression lasted only a little while, after which she shifted as to be able to rise.
“Since we’re already talking, and this lasted less than I had hoped it would, you could ask any questions you might have about us. I’d answer anything that isn’t secret, just in case it helps me as well.”
Naturally, Wei Yi would not refuse free information, so after she pretended to ponder things for a while, she asked, “Was it actually a curse, or was it just a power with too significant a downside? Was it some kind of forbidden skill, or excessively powerful body cultivation method that allowed an excessive degree of beauty to be obtained?”
“From what I know, it should be less the literal definition, and more the figurative one. No ritual and catalyst still stands to maintain some effect over us anywhere that I’ve looked, and it truly would be a strange curse to place on someone, even with the downside,” Shi Bao Ya said, returning to her stable sitting position, “I wouldn’t tell you if it was a forbidden skill, but I don’t think that is was, nor should this be a body cultivation method of any kind. At least, I’ve not heard of anything that could achieve these kinds of results.”
“You might’ve just overlooked it, but I do suppose that you’re right. I’ve got nothing else.”
“In that case, I shall see you later, Wei Yi, whether in battle or in a more peaceful manner. I’ll try not to bother you in the near future, though.”
The rest of the morning passed with Wei Yi monitoring the area around them, looking either for new arrivals or for someone or something on which she could easily pin the label of primordial deity worshiper and then eliminate to get all of them back to what they were meant to be doing. After a while, when the sun was right above them, shining directly from the peak of the sky, she returned to the camp and entered Great Dark’s tent, where the twin of Great Earth was already sitting in wait for her.
“There was something that you wanted to test?” he asked once their barriers had been set up and stabilised.
“I had an idea, and an experiment. The latter can come first, since the idea will take some time, and you’ve already experienced most of it so the only thing that’s left is to figure out some way of actually accomplishing it,” Wei Yi said, “First of all, have you noticed the change that had occurred to Chao Ru’s body when you had come over to pretend to be the one responsible for the God Burial Sea?”
“She was stronger… her energy seemed purer… Which of these do you refer to?”
“Her eyes, actually. You might have noticed that they had turned a very similar shade to mine, and that the moment they faded, so did her power. This was caused by the copious quantity of bloodline power entering her body and resonating with my own when she had been cornered and struggling to withstand the attack of the Golden Lords, but I suspect that if I was to provide my blood directly to another, I might be able to strengthen them without the need for the same lengthy process. You have a strong resistance to change as a result of your Paradigm of Yin, which should prevent you from permanently taking on any of my features if you do consume it.”
“You want me to be the first to… try the effects of your blood? To be frank… with everything that you have done so far… I am tempted to take a dragon’s blood before your own. It seems like it might be safer…” he said, shrugging after a while, “You think that this will be safe?”
“Safe as anything of the sort can be. Don’t worry, one drop of blood that isn’t specifically aiming to assimilate you should not do anything even if it can somehow overwrite the link between you and Great Light, so the most that you’d need to face is a prolonged period of terrible suffering,” she smiled, quickly correcting herself, “Fine, just exaggerating there. It shouldn’t be that bad so long as there is nothing unexpected to change the reaction.”
“While your words do not immediately fill me with confidence… I shall attempt it nonetheless.”
“Good. Let me just give you a drop… actually, no just open your mouth. Keeping my blood from spilling would be wise.”
She was the one with far more knowledge on blood and bloodlines, especially due to him lacking almost any, so he just went along with what she was saying while bracing himself for the aforementioned unexpected alteration of the reaction between his body and her blood. While he wasn’t sure whether she was entirely joking when she had mentioned terrible suffering, it seemed wise to be prepared for it regardless of the actual outcome of the experiment. In the best-case scenario, all he’d need to do would be to relax the defences that he had prepared.
As he opened his mouth just enough to let a droplet of liquid enter with ease, Wei Yi sliced through the skin on one of her fingers with her nail, resulting in a drop of golden red blood tinged with the shade of violet most prevalent within the cosmic nebulae of her energy. It outright glimmered and glowed with energy, the power of her ninth stage bloodline power cultivation hovering around it.
For a moment, she considered whether something like that really should be consumed by anyone, no matter how they chose to do it, but then decided that if she was to test it out on anyone, Great Dark would probably be the next best choice after his twin brother. Nobody else – other than her, but she didn’t count due to being the one who possessed the bloodline in the first place – had as much permanence to their bodies as those two did, and as she had already explained to him, that would be one of the best defences against any changes that the blood of a powerful being might impose on another.
She did also consider whether this is something that could be dulled intentionally by the bloodline originator or by some other force, seeing as there had been tales of draconic empires a long, long time ago, where people would be blessed by the blood of dragons and permitted to hold higher positions based on it, but whether or not that was the case, all that she could do for now was subdue her bloodline power. The influential properties of her blood would still remain.
The wound beneath the droplet closed almost instantly, and as the blood itself tried to re-join the rest of it flowing in her veins, she shifted her hand and flicked the droplet into Great Dark’s mouth.
As soon as it touched his throat, she could see his eyes suddenly widen and his mouth open in a silent scream, his hands balling up into fists with enough strength to draw his freezing blood from beneath his skin. She instantly provided him with plenty of lifeforce to keep him going while she inspected him.
Rather quickly, the cause became obvious to her. Her blood was a perfect mixture of yin and yang as the result of all of her forms of energy, as well as her physique, acting upon it in unison and unifying the two disparate sides of yin and yang into one, but Great Dark, as someone that practised the absolute forbidden skill of the Paradigm of Yin, possessed only yin. That would not normally bother him, but when a force containing such a quantity of yang attempted to act upon his body, even if it did have some yin to balance itself, it was unable to balance the yang of her blood with the yin of his body.
In fact, the way in which the Paradigm of Yin permitted the absorption of the vast majority of yin-type forces was more of a detriment, as it drew away the balancing yin of the blood for its own use while leaving him with the fire of the Ascendant.
Fortunately, she had made sure to minimize the amount of blood that she drew, or else this could have easily been far worse.
“Never mind, then. Turns out I was not exaggerating at all. Are you alright?”
“…” he breathed out his first normal breath in some time, then mumbled, “Had you tried mint when you had your sense of taste?”
“I did get to eat some at one point. You’re not reacting to just that, are you?”
“At one time, when I had been young… I had decided to drink a bowl of purified mint extract… I was a foolish young man then, and to say that it had been unpleasant would be an understatement… This is akin to that, but a thousand times worse, with flames instead of mint… Perhaps I too will lose my sense of taste.”
“I doubt that will save you, but since I had lost it at a random point in time while in the Kong Prison Realm, you might be able to do the same. The problem for you is that you still eat every now and then, so it will not be as insignificant as it had ended up being for me,” she replied, “On a more serious topic, though, you aren’t burning up any more, right? Did you manage to get anything out of this, or was it just a really painful experience?”
“I think that I might have… My Paradigm of Yin did absorb something, so it may assist in my cultivation… and it feels like the fire had spread throughout my veins and meridians, so they may have been cleansed to some extent.”
Naturally, she checked that right away, finding that his body had indeed been purified by a small degree, although it was not anywhere near as impressive as what had happened to Chao Ru’s body. Furthermore, he had not enjoyed any kind of transformation, temporary or otherwise, that might have permitted him to yield some more benefits from the blood through his own energy momentarily gaining power and purity and allowing him to recapture that at a later time, so his gains were far lesser on that account as well.
It did not yield as many positive results as she would have hoped for, but it did confirm for her that if she was to provide her blood to another, they might be able to benefit, although she did not think that giving even a single pure drop would be in any way reasonable even if they had a perfect balance of yin and yang within their body.
Instead, it would be ideal to find some method to dilute the bloodline and the power within it so that everyone could be affected to a far lesser degree, even less than Chao Ru had been with her alternate intake of that energy, but so that they would have enough time to process and digest the blood. That should, in theory, prevent any unnecessary transformations, rejection of the blood, or any episodes of terrible pain and suffering, allowing everyone in the Ascendant’s Arbiters to benefit without causing every single one of them to look like Wei Yi, which would be ever so slightly strange, and would only be worse when considering the large number of relationships that she had with those within the Arbiters.
“Alright, thanks for that. Now, my other idea shouldn’t involve any pain for you or anyone else in the Hunters of the Cosmos, but could lead either to the other forces fleeing, which wouldn’t be ideal but would buy us time, or could lead them to conclude my apparent demise.”
“I won’t need to consume anything… will I?”
“Luckily for you, no. All that is required is me, a bunch of these metal materials,” she reached into the air and removed a number of them from the House of Gold, having placed them in there with a little of Yi Shi Ming’s aid the earlier night, “and some method of delaying the explosion, or otherwise causing it at the right time.”
“Your intention is to make those same metal beads… then place them somewhere to scare the other forces in the area?” Great Dark asked, finally regaining a semblance of clarity in his voice.
“Not place, since that would contradict the theme of the cosmos that an entity known as Primordial Cosmos would be expected to adhere to, but instead in the sky, allowing them to fall some distance before exploding in a spectacular fashion that should be able to fool anyone but the real Hunters of the Cosmos, depending on what they actually know about the threat they seek to discover. If these are all in some way connected to a strange and bloodied altar that is made to crumble afterwards,” she grabbed a handful of the metal beads that she had created, “Then it could seem like the worshiper somehow produced a response from the dormant Primordial Cosmos but failed to awaken it entirely. So long as that can all be done correctly – perhaps using the Mask of Yama – it might work out for us.”
“The mask could allow for us to evade detection… but I am not certain how to create, pretend to discover, then destroy an altar without creating some discrepancy between our intentions and the results… It would be rather difficult, no?”
“It would very much be challenging, that much I do not doubt, since most people are hardly stupid… or so I’d like to believe, but that’s a matter for another time. For now, let’s consider how we may be able to receive the incoming guest in a convincing way instead.”
“Wha-”
“Da Heian, can I enter? I have a report to make,” one of the Ascendant’s Arbiters had come to the entrance flap of the tent and said, having been notified just as all of them had been prior to the creation of this camp that this would be a necessary procedure, “There seems to be another person approaching us.”
Great Dark shut his mouth and shifted the barriers alongside Wei Yi before calling out, “You may enter.”
He did so, stopping two steps in and providing his report, “I only saw one figure, human as the rest, but there may be more. The air must have been particularly hot, since there was a lot of shimmering around him that made it difficult to make out anything of note about his features or equipment.”
“You think it’s a man, though?” Wei Yi asked.
“It looked to be, but I could be wrong. I assume that he is wearing some kind of robe, the more traditional southern one, but again, it was difficult to see.”
“Since I assume that he was going in our vague direction, I guess that we’ll need to prepare to welcome a guest, or a foe, depending on who that person is,” she said, dismissing him from the tent, “I’m not coming out there to greet this one as well, since for me to stand and wait out of the area of the camp every single time someone shows up would just seem odd and highly coincidental. I’m sure that this person, man or not, can welcome himself in just fine.”
“It would still be best to be nearby… whether to welcome him in, or to prevent any unnecessary injuries during battle,” Great Dark stood up from his stool, “Also, you should be nearby to look at him with your own eyes… just in case. He might have an otherworldly gift or something else of note.”
“Don’t worry, I didn’t mean that I’d just sit in here and let everyone else do everything. I just won’t be front and centre this time.”
She rose also and the two of them left the tent at slightly different times, having quickly dispersed the barriers and the minimal evidence of suspicious activity, although most of it, namely the metal artefact beads, were stored in Wei Yi’s House of Gold. Great Dark headed to a spot closer to which the man was spotted, while she took her place by the side of the route from there to his tent, where she would be able to see him walking past and make any judgements she needed to there. It was also even closer to the edge of the camp, so if this was some murderous killer intending to end their lives, she could also be there more quickly to help out the guards.
While she waited, she focused on preparing more of the metal beads within the Kong Prison Realm, where she could do the same thing near the Endless Monolith as she could do in person, except that she needed a little more time and had a little less precision. It wasn’t the best for forging anything intricate, but the creation of a metal bead with an energy channel within wasn’t that difficult.
Time almost flew by as she made several dozen of the explosive beads, all of which could be used the moment that she put any of her own energy into them. To cause some sort of delay, she could potentially encase her cosmic energy in any of her other energy to increase the time needed for the explosion to occur, but the most dangerous to planar energy was her bloodline which was currently also the weakest power available to her, meaning that the delay wouldn’t be significant.
Finally, she sensed that the person was near, walking past her location and towards Great Dark without incident so far.
She turned to him… and her boundless pool of killing intent nearly flooded the camp before she was able to stop it. Although she did not recognise his face, his clothing or anything else specific to him, she could flawlessly tell that the disturbances in the air around him were planar anchors, and that his mannerisms and arrogant expression were exactly the same as of those that had thrown her into the Kong Prison Realm, that had attacked and killed countless in the Yi District, which had enslaved the Remnants of Yin to seek out more of the forces that sought to weaken their hold on Yi City!
Wei Yi turned away the very instant after, desperately suppressing both the flood of killing intent that rapidly arose in the skies of the Kong Prison Realm and the killing will state that was attempting to transform her left arm. She knew that she needed to restrain herself, that to attack a man like that directly would only lead to danger if she didn’t give it enough thought, but it was incredibly difficult.
After some time, when she was barely able to control herself, she raised her eyes just enough to be able to see most of his face, immediately lowering her gaze the moment after. Even then, she had seen enough. She could clearly tell that he had seen her, and while he did not seem to have noticed the killing intent, he had interpreted her lowering of her head as fear of him, prompting a smirk to appear on his face that only fuelled the fire inside her.
Only after he left her line of sight, and after she had taken a bit of time to suppress all of the rage within her, did she realise that her fists were clenched more than tightly enough to draw blood and turn her knuckles white, that some of her teeth had gone into the killing will state regardless of her own intentions, and that the stool she had positioned herself on prior to this, as well as most of the sand around it, had broken to such an extent that the moment she shifted slightly, it fell apart into an incredibly fine powder. Due to the sandstorm, both were shifted and blown away before this could be noticed, but it had showed that she had not been good enough in controlling her killing intent.
‘Those fucking bastards… No, control yourself, you’ve been far better at controlling yourself than this… calm down…’ she breathed slowly to stabilise her mental state again, ‘Fuck whatever plans we had. That man must suffer as soon as possible, and we must take as much knowledge from him as possible. The Great Families cannot be allowed to traipse anywhere near Paragon.’
It was easy to guess why he, presumably a figure from the Great Ping Family judging by his appearance, with his name likely being Ping Wu due to his cultivation, age, and generation, had come here. The hunt for the so-called worshiper of Primordial Cosmos had not been completed yet, and so the people must clearly require some greater incentive to act, or perhaps they were too incapable to discover her when she was right in front of them, as the Greats must have thought.
Whether or not they expected that she would literally be in front of everyone’s eyes when they had first entered the fake Hunters of the Cosmos camp, they must have known that the more time they gave her, the more she could prepare, and so sending in someone who might be able to defeat her if she did not have assistance was the ideal course of action. Wei Yi didn’t know whether they had known about the actions of the third generation of the Great Luo Family, nor what they had presumed had happened in that district and to the Remnants, but had she been them – as disgusting as the very notion was to her – she wouldn’t have presumed that she had been the one to kill two of the third generation.
Someone like Luo Lia Kun might have been the primary cause of their defeat, with her assisting in some smaller but highly vital manner, and so while they weren’t sure where to find the perpetual vice-leader, they might have easily concluded that Wei Yi had gone north.
In fact, it was rather likely that they didn’t have a clue where the Remnants had gone, since they clearly didn’t follow Wei Yi directly and had not been sighted elsewhere, meaning that if they did think they had gone to the prison realm, they should have taken some action to investigate what had happened and whether this was the act of one of the Great Luo Family, or some other force.
Then, they would assume that apart from anyone else that Wei Yi was able to find on her journey to the north, she wouldn’t be aided by the Remnants, and that a lone member of the Great Ping’s third generation would be sufficient, although if there wasn’t another member of that Great Family lurking about, she would suspect that the decision had been made in a very poor state of mind. Either way, if they did know of Paragon, or anything about it, they would almost certainly head towards it to confirm whether the sandstorm was responsible for it, and at that point, Paragon and the people there would be in danger.
To endure a brutal fight was much better than to endanger the Ascendant’s Arbiters, and so she was prepared to fight two from the third generation on her own if necessary.
Unfortunately, simply killing them wouldn’t be enough if she truly wanted to make some progress. She needed to know more about them, more about Testament, and more about their plans and operations as to be able to best disturb or subvert them for her own gains, and that of Yi City as a whole. If they had an archive within which countless forgotten manuals could be found, she would need to find it and release all the manuals to the world. If there was a treasury where countless resources were held, she needed to release them from their grip. Whatever Testament was, it must be destroyed.
That was one of the things that she didn’t even think couldn’t be redeemed by its usage towards a positive future, unlike the techniques that she had pilfered from them by way of observation. It must have been used for so long towards a terrible pursuit, and whether it was a book, a mansion, a location or a terrible abomination that was controlling the Greats, there was no choice but absolute destruction and immediate elimination the moment that it is possible.
If she did not do this, then the countless souls that had suffered would never forgive her nor the Ascendant’s Arbiters, and they would never be able to rest wherever or whenever they continued to persist after a person’s demise.
“Wei Yi, had you listened in on the conversation?” Great Dark’s voice suddenly emerged in her ears.
She knew that he had used an energy thread to connect to her, so she quickly reinforced it and replied, “A little busy seething with hatred, I’m afraid. Short version, if possible.”
“The Flood Kings and the Keepers of Groves shall go out in search of the worshiper, heading towards the source of the sandstorm. He will remain here for a while. I had waited until he was far enough for no spiritual perception of his to possible be able to sense us, so he is already some distance from the camp… Are you-”
“Perfectly fine, but no time to chat. He might be up to something.”
She severed the thread right away and ran out of her tent under the cover of all of her illusory methods, carefully feeling out any kinds of spiritual perception or otherwise observatory energy within the air. Having been caught once before, she did not intend to make it as easy for the Great Families this time, but she still needed to observe what Ping Wu did. Any little action could reveal the truth, or otherwise some hint, regarding Testament and their actions, and if she overlooked it due to fear or caution, she would be a far greater fool than anyone who had decided to side with the Greats willingly.
On her way, she confirmed that the bodies of the Golden Lords, from whom she had taken the embers that resided within their hearts, had nothing on them that she could use to her advantage, which was unfortunately the case.
With her great speed, she was able to find the Great Family member standing in the distance, near the weaker outer portion of the sandstorm, having stopped just a moment prior.
He glanced around, using both his eyes and spiritual perception to cover as much of the area around him as he could within the sand, then placed his palms and fingers together. All of the illusory anchors around him shifted in a sudden manner, arranging an obstructing field through which neither spiritual perception nor vision could pass easily. Had she not known that he was standing exactly where she kept looking, and had her every aspect not been significantly more powerful than that of nearly any other cultivator, she would have lacked the ability to keep track of him through it. Fortunately, it appeared to be as good at obstructing her killing intent as it was his presence, so that didn’t cause a problem.
Lowering his head for a moment, he must have mumbled something before a ray of light shot out from his forehead at an immense speed, leaving her sight within moments, the barrier around him disappearing just as quickly with the anchors’ return to a normal state.
Nevertheless, that didn’t mean that she had no clue of where the ray had ended up. She had seen how it appeared, the arc at which it travelled, the speed with which it did so, and so to estimate the vague landing location would hardly be impossible, especially not if the vague area had only a single thing of note for the ray of light to have been directed towards. It wasn’t clear what it was, nor what the purpose of sending it was, but judging by the mumbling, it might have been some kind of message. If it had been a message, it would be directed towards someone that could receive it.
The Greats would never communicate with some ordinary person, so it is likely headed towards an encampment of the Great Families. So long as that is where it goes, then there must be someone aware of the current situation present there to receive it. That person would be very likely to have some understanding of the situation of the Great Families as a whole, and thus…
‘They might be aware of Testament! No, they would have to be, but there might be a document of any kind that I can reference!’
“Wei Yi, the moment that they had left, the 7th Legion have attacked! We-” Great Dark’s voice was suddenly cut off as the Great Family member turned towards her, clearly seeing right past all of her stealth methods.
“Tired of spying yet?” Ping Wu asked, his anchors forming a barrier between him and her as he confidently strode towards her, “For intruding on what is not relevant to you, you shall die!”
Her killing intent had already been overflowing at that point, and this was more than enough to tip it over, the great ocean of absolute hatred for the people that had forced her onto this path to begin with surging past the floodgates and flooding her body and the area around her. Sand turned to fine powder, the air scattered, and her left side instantly transformed into the killing will state.
Not only was that the second attack of the second day of them attempting to convince a bunch of people that they were there in peace, with neither group having any sufficient reason to desire their demise, but this bastard before her dared to say that his pursuit of further devolving the world had no relevance to her. Her eyes surged with crimson light as she charged at him, drawing upon all forms of her power at once.
“LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT IS RELEVANT!”
V4C19: Unwelcome Entrance
A little while later, the Ascendant’s Arbiters that were masquerading around as the Hunters of the Cosmos also all awoke and got around to doing their own tasks, with just a few finding that the sand on one side of the camp looked a little strange, as if something had dripped into a pool of water that was then frozen mid-motion and turned to sand.
They didn’t know the cause, as sound had been completely prevented from exiting the many layers of barriers even if the light did pierce some, nor did they find any reason for concern as Wei Yi and Great Dark both appeared to be entirely unphased by the matter even as they walked near that area several times, so it was promptly ignored. It didn’t take long for the wind and scattered sand from the sandstorm to clear the phenomenon away, making it look entirely ordinary, so in just an hour after most of them had woken up, it was only present in their memories.
For some time, it was pleasantly quiet, without any interruptions or sudden attacks from other forces, allowing everyone to relax almost as much as they could within the Kong Prison Realm and Paragon, although they had to maintain an alert look on the surface as to not be caught out by the other groups.
That was the case for most of them, but Wei Yi was met by Shi Bao Ya, who had come exactly when she had said she would. She was standing with some excitement at the side of the tent’s entrance, waiting to be allowed inside, so Chao Ru was let out of the tent first before one of the leading members of the Flood Kings of Shi was allowed in.
“Have you had a good night, Wei Yi?” she asked once she entered and found a place to sit.
“As good as any, I suppose. Since you want to talk to me, would you mind explaining what it is you even want to discuss?”
“Well, I do think I should tell you something, at the very least. To disturb you from your guard duties, and anything else you need to do in the camp, I shouldn’t just keep you guessing,” Shi Bao Ya nodded, gesturing towards the other stool in the tent, “You might want to sit down near me.”
That still didn’t tell her what she wanted, but Wei Yi figured that she might as well go along with it for now and let this continue on without interruptions. Whatever the woman wanted, she didn’t see anything suspicious on her body nor did she appear capable of harming her in any way, so unless Shi Bao Ya had an otherworldly gift somewhere on her without the Truth of the Universe noticing it and trembling in response, she had no power over Wei Yi.
“I had asked you about the Shi family when we had first met. This is related to that, and to some of the rumours that go around about our family… especially in our own district, as unfortunate as that is.”
Wei Yi shrugged before she could get too far, “I’m not from Yi City. I don’t know much about it.”
“Yes, of course. The reputation that we have is regarding our looks. You might have noticed that we all look… no nice way to put this, but we look absolutely stunning, to the point that some of the people around us look practically dull in comparison, even if they are rather gorgeous in their own right,” Shi Bao Ya explained, “Most of us would say that the rumours had been started by jealous men and women whose partners or lovers had been stolen away by our family in the past due to their superior appearances, but… there is some truth to the rumours.”
“Which I have still not heard. I could have understood something from this if you didn’t keep beating around the bush. Even the gracious sands won’t stay still for eternity.”
“Indeed, sorry about that. The rumour that is most common is that of a curse, or some vile force, that had allowed us to obtain these appearances all those decades ago, and made them dominant in our family,” she said, although she hardly needed to continue at that point, “I have found that there is a trace of truth to the words that they say. Something had affected us before, and it might either still be present, or it could return at any point.”
‘Yi Shi Ming, you were fucking right. Why did you have to be right?’ Wei Yi said to the spatial spirit while she faked an expression of continued confusion, “What kind of curse makes one look attractive? Most people would rather take it, wouldn’t they?”
“The curse was that it had to be stolen from others, and that it had to be stolen constantly and endlessly if the appearances were to be maintained. Supposedly, our Shi family had once been some of the ugliest people on the continent, but that effect had changed it, and we are now the complete opposite,” Shi Bao Ya sighed, “Most of us don’t care to do much, but I want to find out more. I’d like to understand whether this is necessarily true, and, if it is and it is possible to disperse the curse entirely, whether it would be possible to attain beauty some other way. You happen to possess it, and you say you’ve never heard of us before, so if you could tell me everything you know about your own appearance, that might help our district immensely. Maybe the others would finally listen if they didn’t need to risk losing their pretty faces, large boobs and whatever else.”
That was one of the nobler causes that Wei Yi had come across in some time, as it going successfully would permit everyone in the Shi family that had gotten used to fantastical appearances keep onto them regardless of the initial cause, while clearing away the rumours of a curse by having something else to show in reply.
However, Wei Yi had attainted her own appearance though a combination of cultivation methods, a physique, and a lot of other factors that were rather difficult to explain or mention. It could be of use to that family, but it would also risk exposing secrets and might cause them to seek even further perfection beyond a healthy level, potentially reigniting whatever had begun their curse in the first place.
As such, she decided to be polite and diplomatic in her reply, “I can’t really tell you much. I was born like this, then I did some cultivation, got the Titanic Demolisher physique, and here I am. Also, curse or not, something that enters the blood tends to stay in it. Unless you wish to ruin your own family’s seed entirely, the good looks will likely remain.”
“That… was what I was afraid you’d say. Natural beauty is a hard thing to deal with, and I have heard of your physique before. It doesn’t change facial features nearly to the extent that they might make you look that good, if at all,” Shi Bao Ya sighed again, looking down in slight but momentary defeat, “While I have enough evidence of something having changed our appearances immensely, I know that nobody would ever dare touch it due to the risk of undoing its effects, even if that makes little sense. I suppose I’ll just have to look elsewhere then. Thank you anyway, Wei Yi.”
Her saddened expression lasted only a little while, after which she shifted as to be able to rise.
“Since we’re already talking, and this lasted less than I had hoped it would, you could ask any questions you might have about us. I’d answer anything that isn’t secret, just in case it helps me as well.”
Naturally, Wei Yi would not refuse free information, so after she pretended to ponder things for a while, she asked, “Was it actually a curse, or was it just a power with too significant a downside? Was it some kind of forbidden skill, or excessively powerful body cultivation method that allowed an excessive degree of beauty to be obtained?”
“From what I know, it should be less the literal definition, and more the figurative one. No ritual and catalyst still stands to maintain some effect over us anywhere that I’ve looked, and it truly would be a strange curse to place on someone, even with the downside,” Shi Bao Ya said, returning to her stable sitting position, “I wouldn’t tell you if it was a forbidden skill, but I don’t think that is was, nor should this be a body cultivation method of any kind. At least, I’ve not heard of anything that could achieve these kinds of results.”
“You might’ve just overlooked it, but I do suppose that you’re right. I’ve got nothing else.”
“In that case, I shall see you later, Wei Yi, whether in battle or in a more peaceful manner. I’ll try not to bother you in the near future, though.”
The rest of the morning passed with Wei Yi monitoring the area around them, looking either for new arrivals or for someone or something on which she could easily pin the label of primordial deity worshiper and then eliminate to get all of them back to what they were meant to be doing. After a while, when the sun was right above them, shining directly from the peak of the sky, she returned to the camp and entered Great Dark’s tent, where the twin of Great Earth was already sitting in wait for her.
“There was something that you wanted to test?” he asked once their barriers had been set up and stabilised.
“I had an idea, and an experiment. The latter can come first, since the idea will take some time, and you’ve already experienced most of it so the only thing that’s left is to figure out some way of actually accomplishing it,” Wei Yi said, “First of all, have you noticed the change that had occurred to Chao Ru’s body when you had come over to pretend to be the one responsible for the God Burial Sea?”
“She was stronger… her energy seemed purer… Which of these do you refer to?”
“Her eyes, actually. You might have noticed that they had turned a very similar shade to mine, and that the moment they faded, so did her power. This was caused by the copious quantity of bloodline power entering her body and resonating with my own when she had been cornered and struggling to withstand the attack of the Golden Lords, but I suspect that if I was to provide my blood directly to another, I might be able to strengthen them without the need for the same lengthy process. You have a strong resistance to change as a result of your Paradigm of Yin, which should prevent you from permanently taking on any of my features if you do consume it.”
“You want me to be the first to… try the effects of your blood? To be frank… with everything that you have done so far… I am tempted to take a dragon’s blood before your own. It seems like it might be safer…” he said, shrugging after a while, “You think that this will be safe?”
“Safe as anything of the sort can be. Don’t worry, one drop of blood that isn’t specifically aiming to assimilate you should not do anything even if it can somehow overwrite the link between you and Great Light, so the most that you’d need to face is a prolonged period of terrible suffering,” she smiled, quickly correcting herself, “Fine, just exaggerating there. It shouldn’t be that bad so long as there is nothing unexpected to change the reaction.”
“While your words do not immediately fill me with confidence… I shall attempt it nonetheless.”
“Good. Let me just give you a drop… actually, no just open your mouth. Keeping my blood from spilling would be wise.”
She was the one with far more knowledge on blood and bloodlines, especially due to him lacking almost any, so he just went along with what she was saying while bracing himself for the aforementioned unexpected alteration of the reaction between his body and her blood. While he wasn’t sure whether she was entirely joking when she had mentioned terrible suffering, it seemed wise to be prepared for it regardless of the actual outcome of the experiment. In the best-case scenario, all he’d need to do would be to relax the defences that he had prepared.
As he opened his mouth just enough to let a droplet of liquid enter with ease, Wei Yi sliced through the skin on one of her fingers with her nail, resulting in a drop of golden red blood tinged with the shade of violet most prevalent within the cosmic nebulae of her energy. It outright glimmered and glowed with energy, the power of her ninth stage bloodline power cultivation hovering around it.
For a moment, she considered whether something like that really should be consumed by anyone, no matter how they chose to do it, but then decided that if she was to test it out on anyone, Great Dark would probably be the next best choice after his twin brother. Nobody else – other than her, but she didn’t count due to being the one who possessed the bloodline in the first place – had as much permanence to their bodies as those two did, and as she had already explained to him, that would be one of the best defences against any changes that the blood of a powerful being might impose on another.
She did also consider whether this is something that could be dulled intentionally by the bloodline originator or by some other force, seeing as there had been tales of draconic empires a long, long time ago, where people would be blessed by the blood of dragons and permitted to hold higher positions based on it, but whether or not that was the case, all that she could do for now was subdue her bloodline power. The influential properties of her blood would still remain.
The wound beneath the droplet closed almost instantly, and as the blood itself tried to re-join the rest of it flowing in her veins, she shifted her hand and flicked the droplet into Great Dark’s mouth.
As soon as it touched his throat, she could see his eyes suddenly widen and his mouth open in a silent scream, his hands balling up into fists with enough strength to draw his freezing blood from beneath his skin. She instantly provided him with plenty of lifeforce to keep him going while she inspected him.
Rather quickly, the cause became obvious to her. Her blood was a perfect mixture of yin and yang as the result of all of her forms of energy, as well as her physique, acting upon it in unison and unifying the two disparate sides of yin and yang into one, but Great Dark, as someone that practised the absolute forbidden skill of the Paradigm of Yin, possessed only yin. That would not normally bother him, but when a force containing such a quantity of yang attempted to act upon his body, even if it did have some yin to balance itself, it was unable to balance the yang of her blood with the yin of his body.
In fact, the way in which the Paradigm of Yin permitted the absorption of the vast majority of yin-type forces was more of a detriment, as it drew away the balancing yin of the blood for its own use while leaving him with the fire of the Ascendant.
Fortunately, she had made sure to minimize the amount of blood that she drew, or else this could have easily been far worse.
“Never mind, then. Turns out I was not exaggerating at all. Are you alright?”
“…” he breathed out his first normal breath in some time, then mumbled, “Had you tried mint when you had your sense of taste?”
“I did get to eat some at one point. You’re not reacting to just that, are you?”
“At one time, when I had been young… I had decided to drink a bowl of purified mint extract… I was a foolish young man then, and to say that it had been unpleasant would be an understatement… This is akin to that, but a thousand times worse, with flames instead of mint… Perhaps I too will lose my sense of taste.”
“I doubt that will save you, but since I had lost it at a random point in time while in the Kong Prison Realm, you might be able to do the same. The problem for you is that you still eat every now and then, so it will not be as insignificant as it had ended up being for me,” she replied, “On a more serious topic, though, you aren’t burning up any more, right? Did you manage to get anything out of this, or was it just a really painful experience?”
“I think that I might have… My Paradigm of Yin did absorb something, so it may assist in my cultivation… and it feels like the fire had spread throughout my veins and meridians, so they may have been cleansed to some extent.”
Naturally, she checked that right away, finding that his body had indeed been purified by a small degree, although it was not anywhere near as impressive as what had happened to Chao Ru’s body. Furthermore, he had not enjoyed any kind of transformation, temporary or otherwise, that might have permitted him to yield some more benefits from the blood through his own energy momentarily gaining power and purity and allowing him to recapture that at a later time, so his gains were far lesser on that account as well.
It did not yield as many positive results as she would have hoped for, but it did confirm for her that if she was to provide her blood to another, they might be able to benefit, although she did not think that giving even a single pure drop would be in any way reasonable even if they had a perfect balance of yin and yang within their body.
Instead, it would be ideal to find some method to dilute the bloodline and the power within it so that everyone could be affected to a far lesser degree, even less than Chao Ru had been with her alternate intake of that energy, but so that they would have enough time to process and digest the blood. That should, in theory, prevent any unnecessary transformations, rejection of the blood, or any episodes of terrible pain and suffering, allowing everyone in the Ascendant’s Arbiters to benefit without causing every single one of them to look like Wei Yi, which would be ever so slightly strange, and would only be worse when considering the large number of relationships that she had with those within the Arbiters.
“Alright, thanks for that. Now, my other idea shouldn’t involve any pain for you or anyone else in the Hunters of the Cosmos, but could lead either to the other forces fleeing, which wouldn’t be ideal but would buy us time, or could lead them to conclude my apparent demise.”
“I won’t need to consume anything… will I?”
“Luckily for you, no. All that is required is me, a bunch of these metal materials,” she reached into the air and removed a number of them from the House of Gold, having placed them in there with a little of Yi Shi Ming’s aid the earlier night, “and some method of delaying the explosion, or otherwise causing it at the right time.”
“Your intention is to make those same metal beads… then place them somewhere to scare the other forces in the area?” Great Dark asked, finally regaining a semblance of clarity in his voice.
“Not place, since that would contradict the theme of the cosmos that an entity known as Primordial Cosmos would be expected to adhere to, but instead in the sky, allowing them to fall some distance before exploding in a spectacular fashion that should be able to fool anyone but the real Hunters of the Cosmos, depending on what they actually know about the threat they seek to discover. If these are all in some way connected to a strange and bloodied altar that is made to crumble afterwards,” she grabbed a handful of the metal beads that she had created, “Then it could seem like the worshiper somehow produced a response from the dormant Primordial Cosmos but failed to awaken it entirely. So long as that can all be done correctly – perhaps using the Mask of Yama – it might work out for us.”
“The mask could allow for us to evade detection… but I am not certain how to create, pretend to discover, then destroy an altar without creating some discrepancy between our intentions and the results… It would be rather difficult, no?”
“It would very much be challenging, that much I do not doubt, since most people are hardly stupid… or so I’d like to believe, but that’s a matter for another time. For now, let’s consider how we may be able to receive the incoming guest in a convincing way instead.”
“Wha-”
“Da Heian, can I enter? I have a report to make,” one of the Ascendant’s Arbiters had come to the entrance flap of the tent and said, having been notified just as all of them had been prior to the creation of this camp that this would be a necessary procedure, “There seems to be another person approaching us.”
Great Dark shut his mouth and shifted the barriers alongside Wei Yi before calling out, “You may enter.”
He did so, stopping two steps in and providing his report, “I only saw one figure, human as the rest, but there may be more. The air must have been particularly hot, since there was a lot of shimmering around him that made it difficult to make out anything of note about his features or equipment.”
“You think it’s a man, though?” Wei Yi asked.
“It looked to be, but I could be wrong. I assume that he is wearing some kind of robe, the more traditional southern one, but again, it was difficult to see.”
“Since I assume that he was going in our vague direction, I guess that we’ll need to prepare to welcome a guest, or a foe, depending on who that person is,” she said, dismissing him from the tent, “I’m not coming out there to greet this one as well, since for me to stand and wait out of the area of the camp every single time someone shows up would just seem odd and highly coincidental. I’m sure that this person, man or not, can welcome himself in just fine.”
“It would still be best to be nearby… whether to welcome him in, or to prevent any unnecessary injuries during battle,” Great Dark stood up from his stool, “Also, you should be nearby to look at him with your own eyes… just in case. He might have an otherworldly gift or something else of note.”
“Don’t worry, I didn’t mean that I’d just sit in here and let everyone else do everything. I just won’t be front and centre this time.”
She rose also and the two of them left the tent at slightly different times, having quickly dispersed the barriers and the minimal evidence of suspicious activity, although most of it, namely the metal artefact beads, were stored in Wei Yi’s House of Gold. Great Dark headed to a spot closer to which the man was spotted, while she took her place by the side of the route from there to his tent, where she would be able to see him walking past and make any judgements she needed to there. It was also even closer to the edge of the camp, so if this was some murderous killer intending to end their lives, she could also be there more quickly to help out the guards.
While she waited, she focused on preparing more of the metal beads within the Kong Prison Realm, where she could do the same thing near the Endless Monolith as she could do in person, except that she needed a little more time and had a little less precision. It wasn’t the best for forging anything intricate, but the creation of a metal bead with an energy channel within wasn’t that difficult.
Time almost flew by as she made several dozen of the explosive beads, all of which could be used the moment that she put any of her own energy into them. To cause some sort of delay, she could potentially encase her cosmic energy in any of her other energy to increase the time needed for the explosion to occur, but the most dangerous to planar energy was her bloodline which was currently also the weakest power available to her, meaning that the delay wouldn’t be significant.
Finally, she sensed that the person was near, walking past her location and towards Great Dark without incident so far.
She turned to him… and her boundless pool of killing intent nearly flooded the camp before she was able to stop it. Although she did not recognise his face, his clothing or anything else specific to him, she could flawlessly tell that the disturbances in the air around him were planar anchors, and that his mannerisms and arrogant expression were exactly the same as of those that had thrown her into the Kong Prison Realm, that had attacked and killed countless in the Yi District, which had enslaved the Remnants of Yin to seek out more of the forces that sought to weaken their hold on Yi City!
Wei Yi turned away the very instant after, desperately suppressing both the flood of killing intent that rapidly arose in the skies of the Kong Prison Realm and the killing will state that was attempting to transform her left arm. She knew that she needed to restrain herself, that to attack a man like that directly would only lead to danger if she didn’t give it enough thought, but it was incredibly difficult.
After some time, when she was barely able to control herself, she raised her eyes just enough to be able to see most of his face, immediately lowering her gaze the moment after. Even then, she had seen enough. She could clearly tell that he had seen her, and while he did not seem to have noticed the killing intent, he had interpreted her lowering of her head as fear of him, prompting a smirk to appear on his face that only fuelled the fire inside her.
Only after he left her line of sight, and after she had taken a bit of time to suppress all of the rage within her, did she realise that her fists were clenched more than tightly enough to draw blood and turn her knuckles white, that some of her teeth had gone into the killing will state regardless of her own intentions, and that the stool she had positioned herself on prior to this, as well as most of the sand around it, had broken to such an extent that the moment she shifted slightly, it fell apart into an incredibly fine powder. Due to the sandstorm, both were shifted and blown away before this could be noticed, but it had showed that she had not been good enough in controlling her killing intent.
‘Those fucking bastards… No, control yourself, you’ve been far better at controlling yourself than this… calm down…’ she breathed slowly to stabilise her mental state again, ‘Fuck whatever plans we had. That man must suffer as soon as possible, and we must take as much knowledge from him as possible. The Great Families cannot be allowed to traipse anywhere near Paragon.’
It was easy to guess why he, presumably a figure from the Great Ping Family judging by his appearance, with his name likely being Ping Wu due to his cultivation, age, and generation, had come here. The hunt for the so-called worshiper of Primordial Cosmos had not been completed yet, and so the people must clearly require some greater incentive to act, or perhaps they were too incapable to discover her when she was right in front of them, as the Greats must have thought.
Whether or not they expected that she would literally be in front of everyone’s eyes when they had first entered the fake Hunters of the Cosmos camp, they must have known that the more time they gave her, the more she could prepare, and so sending in someone who might be able to defeat her if she did not have assistance was the ideal course of action. Wei Yi didn’t know whether they had known about the actions of the third generation of the Great Luo Family, nor what they had presumed had happened in that district and to the Remnants, but had she been them – as disgusting as the very notion was to her – she wouldn’t have presumed that she had been the one to kill two of the third generation.
Someone like Luo Lia Kun might have been the primary cause of their defeat, with her assisting in some smaller but highly vital manner, and so while they weren’t sure where to find the perpetual vice-leader, they might have easily concluded that Wei Yi had gone north.
In fact, it was rather likely that they didn’t have a clue where the Remnants had gone, since they clearly didn’t follow Wei Yi directly and had not been sighted elsewhere, meaning that if they did think they had gone to the prison realm, they should have taken some action to investigate what had happened and whether this was the act of one of the Great Luo Family, or some other force.
Then, they would assume that apart from anyone else that Wei Yi was able to find on her journey to the north, she wouldn’t be aided by the Remnants, and that a lone member of the Great Ping’s third generation would be sufficient, although if there wasn’t another member of that Great Family lurking about, she would suspect that the decision had been made in a very poor state of mind. Either way, if they did know of Paragon, or anything about it, they would almost certainly head towards it to confirm whether the sandstorm was responsible for it, and at that point, Paragon and the people there would be in danger.
To endure a brutal fight was much better than to endanger the Ascendant’s Arbiters, and so she was prepared to fight two from the third generation on her own if necessary.
Unfortunately, simply killing them wouldn’t be enough if she truly wanted to make some progress. She needed to know more about them, more about Testament, and more about their plans and operations as to be able to best disturb or subvert them for her own gains, and that of Yi City as a whole. If they had an archive within which countless forgotten manuals could be found, she would need to find it and release all the manuals to the world. If there was a treasury where countless resources were held, she needed to release them from their grip. Whatever Testament was, it must be destroyed.
That was one of the things that she didn’t even think couldn’t be redeemed by its usage towards a positive future, unlike the techniques that she had pilfered from them by way of observation. It must have been used for so long towards a terrible pursuit, and whether it was a book, a mansion, a location or a terrible abomination that was controlling the Greats, there was no choice but absolute destruction and immediate elimination the moment that it is possible.
If she did not do this, then the countless souls that had suffered would never forgive her nor the Ascendant’s Arbiters, and they would never be able to rest wherever or whenever they continued to persist after a person’s demise.
“Wei Yi, had you listened in on the conversation?” Great Dark’s voice suddenly emerged in her ears.
She knew that he had used an energy thread to connect to her, so she quickly reinforced it and replied, “A little busy seething with hatred, I’m afraid. Short version, if possible.”
“The Flood Kings and the Keepers of Groves shall go out in search of the worshiper, heading towards the source of the sandstorm. He will remain here for a while. I had waited until he was far enough for no spiritual perception of his to possible be able to sense us, so he is already some distance from the camp… Are you-”
“Perfectly fine, but no time to chat. He might be up to something.”
She severed the thread right away and ran out of her tent under the cover of all of her illusory methods, carefully feeling out any kinds of spiritual perception or otherwise observatory energy within the air. Having been caught once before, she did not intend to make it as easy for the Great Families this time, but she still needed to observe what Ping Wu did. Any little action could reveal the truth, or otherwise some hint, regarding Testament and their actions, and if she overlooked it due to fear or caution, she would be a far greater fool than anyone who had decided to side with the Greats willingly.
On her way, she confirmed that the bodies of the Golden Lords, from whom she had taken the embers that resided within their hearts, had nothing on them that she could use to her advantage, which was unfortunately the case.
With her great speed, she was able to find the Great Family member standing in the distance, near the weaker outer portion of the sandstorm, having stopped just a moment prior.
He glanced around, using both his eyes and spiritual perception to cover as much of the area around him as he could within the sand, then placed his palms and fingers together. All of the illusory anchors around him shifted in a sudden manner, arranging an obstructing field through which neither spiritual perception nor vision could pass easily. Had she not known that he was standing exactly where she kept looking, and had her every aspect not been significantly more powerful than that of nearly any other cultivator, she would have lacked the ability to keep track of him through it. Fortunately, it appeared to be as good at obstructing her killing intent as it was his presence, so that didn’t cause a problem.
Lowering his head for a moment, he must have mumbled something before a ray of light shot out from his forehead at an immense speed, leaving her sight within moments, the barrier around him disappearing just as quickly with the anchors’ return to a normal state.
Nevertheless, that didn’t mean that she had no clue of where the ray had ended up. She had seen how it appeared, the arc at which it travelled, the speed with which it did so, and so to estimate the vague landing location would hardly be impossible, especially not if the vague area had only a single thing of note for the ray of light to have been directed towards. It wasn’t clear what it was, nor what the purpose of sending it was, but judging by the mumbling, it might have been some kind of message. If it had been a message, it would be directed towards someone that could receive it.
The Greats would never communicate with some ordinary person, so it is likely headed towards an encampment of the Great Families. So long as that is where it goes, then there must be someone aware of the current situation present there to receive it. That person would be very likely to have some understanding of the situation of the Great Families as a whole, and thus…
‘They might be aware of Testament! No, they would have to be, but there might be a document of any kind that I can reference!’
“Wei Yi, the moment that they had left, the 7th Legion have attacked! We-” Great Dark’s voice was suddenly cut off as the Great Family member turned towards her, clearly seeing right past all of her stealth methods.
“Tired of spying yet?” Ping Wu asked, his anchors forming a barrier between him and her as he confidently strode towards her, “For intruding on what is not relevant to you, you shall die!”
Her killing intent had already been overflowing at that point, and this was more than enough to tip it over, the great ocean of absolute hatred for the people that had forced her onto this path to begin with surging past the floodgates and flooding her body and the area around her. Sand turned to fine powder, the air scattered, and her left side instantly transformed into the killing will state.
Not only was that the second attack of the second day of them attempting to convince a bunch of people that they were there in peace, with neither group having any sufficient reason to desire their demise, but this bastard before her dared to say that his pursuit of further devolving the world had no relevance to her. Her eyes surged with crimson light as she charged at him, drawing upon all forms of her power at once.
“LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT IS RELEVANT!”
