V4C23: Acquiring the Hunter’s Toxin
Naturally, Wei Yi was unable to leave without grabbing Shi Bao Ya, cleaning away any evidence of their presence, and just generally ensuring that there would be as few things to put them in danger later as was possible. In addition, she did not know the consequence of whatever message had been sent by Ping Wu, and thus couldn’t tell whether there would be a swarm of Great Family members rushing in if they wasted a little too much time. Huang Yu Di was also put somewhere safe at the end.
In general, it seemed wiser to avoid such things, and so that was exactly what she did, clearing the barriers around camp, removing their traces from the sand, grabbing up the embers and anchor points left behind just in case either one could be traced somehow. When she was ready, she followed the others.
At her behest, they had run in the direction of the Desert Fortress, Paragon, and while they would be unable to reach it on their own even if she had permitted the obstructive properties of the sand to not apply to them, getting them closer to it would make it easer to mess with the current spatial gateway system that the fortress used. Making a new one would require either another point on which to stabilise the gateway, or for her to reach the seventh realm and gain some vague abilities to influence the world around her in spatial and temporal means, but moving one was always easy, and she had already split her gateway into multiple pieces. She just needed to pick one up and move it.
With Yi Shi Ming’s aid and her own cultivation realm that always put her nearer to the next one than her own, especially while she had the advantage of her fifth realm mental energy cultivation, doing something like that wasn’t completely impossible, especially not if it was only for a brief period of time, but such complex operations were always made far easier by proximity. The less a spatial gateway needed to be separated from another, the less energy it would take to displace it and allow for travel through it.
Thus, to make it easiest for herself while giving Wu Yi Tai as little time as possible to ask her questions, since they would just be annoying to answer without giving her all that much in return, she did not run as swiftly as she could, limiting herself to a speed closer to the one she had displayed while running alongside him into battle. It would seem more reasonable in his eyes, and it would let him get as closer as possible to the inner portion of the sandstorm alongside the rest of her Arbiters before she needed to bring all of them through. Fortunately, the volume and mass of the things being carried through a spatial gateway did not appear to matter, only the gateway and its size itself, so at the very least that much was made far easier by the laws of the world.
Speaking of the laws of the world, she had acquired her Great Stride of the Dao of Law quite some time ago, speaking in terms of when she had first acquired her comprehension of Dao, not in terms of her overall lifespan, but she didn’t notice it budging any further just yet. She had a slight perception of the way in which her Dao comprehension progressed, and it was not one that did change.
This would be fine, given how much her Dao of Law shifted at sudden moments of enlightenment, but she had just witnessed the way in which a black sun, something that she didn’t even know existed prior to a few weeks ago, exploded. She saw time stop, which confirmed that this was indeed possible. Wei Yi witnessed how a spatial gateway formed, feeling every part of the process and also came to understand the metal ore energy she had now put to use in the underground portion of Paragon.
Obviously, she was neither the will of the heavens nor some embodiment of the Great Dao, so she couldn’t be sure what full success required, especially not when she made the Ascendant’s Dao seemingly on her own all of a sudden…
‘Now that I think about that, I am suddenly concerned about my own Dao. It came out of nowhere, prompted by a physique that was prompted by cosmic energy which was, in part, prompted by the Truth of the Universe, whatever caused it to end up in me, and Kong Shi Meng before me… Fuck, I’m getting paranoid about things again. For the moment, my Ascendant’s Dao is the best weapon I have, especially if the Dao of Law is not going to become developed at any point,’ she frowned for a moment, clearing her expression soon after, ‘Hm… The Dao is a product of the world, in a way, no? Could the Great Dao lack comprehension of the Dao of Law?’
That was raised as nothing more than a random point, since she hardly had the capabilities to go and interrogate the heavens at the moment, even if she would absolutely love to do so.
There were many issues that they ought to address, or at the very least explain to her if there was some clever reason behind everything they did so far – which she could accept, although she would hardly enjoy it regardless of the way it was explained – but it was difficult for anyone to conclude whether there was even a physical location for the heavens, whether it was in the ground or the sky. To get there would be even more difficult, and she didn’t expect to be able to do it while she was only in the fourth realm.
Whatever the heaven’s will was, it would be no weaker than the ninth realm, given that it was the peak of cultivation in the Planar Continents, and if the otherworldly theories of there being a greater world and realm were accurate, then it might even be above that. Even if she had the best points, arguments and whatever else when she confronted it, whatever entity the heaven’s will was could just swat her away and end her life the moment that it wanted to. She’d just throw away her own life, then.
‘I don’t need to do that yet. If the heavens are in any way interested in a discussion, I’m sure that they’ll come down on their own, if they are able to. Otherwise, I shall wait until the way to the heavens becomes clear to me,’ Wei Yi decided, speeding up as she noticed that Wu Yi Tai was getting close enough to Paragon for her to be able to act.
After a brief sprint, she also got into view of the group of Hunters and Arbiters, then caught up with them a short time after that.
“Hey, Chao Ru, sorry for not chatting more but we’ll be back in the fortress soon enough. See you in a bit!” she called out as she ran past her, waving for a moment while still in sight since Chao Ru had a slower reaction time than she did.
Wu Yi Tai had been at the front of the group, given that he was effectively the second strongest warrior amongst them and was more capable at defensive techniques than Great Dark, at least while the latter had no inscriptions to work with. As such, Wei Yi had been able to check out what the general had made use of while sprinting through, and found that he had not chosen to surround her troops with his own, more numerous as they were, and was keeping them on equal level to his own forces.
That certainly gave a positive impression, which combined with the previous ones to make her conclude, at least for now, that he wasn’t particularly bad, certainly better than the Hammers. They had disappeared a short time after the end of the battle, and, frankly, she was now believing that they were spirits that rose to engage in battle, rather than being physical entities.
Her Vision of Law did not point out any faults, but perhaps she lacked comprehension of the matter of spirits and ghosts that would have permitted her to notice the oddity before they vanished.
She made a note to check out what the Xin family did to have all of their children possess three Dao Vision state marks on their eyes, then proceeded to greet the general while permitting the sandstorm to part around her, “Hello there, General Wu Yi Tai. Had to take my time back there, but you needn’t continue on for much further, since the gateway to our usual place of residence can be opened up almost any moment now.”
“I… see? Gateway? Is a fortress being hidden here?”
“Not quite. Instead, the gateway is in the distance, and we need to open up a quick spatial gateway. I’m sure that you wouldn’t mind, would you?” she asked, glancing away as she realised how oddly she was talking, “The fuck was that? Anyway, we have a fortress, and we’ll be coming along to it quickly.”
General Wu Yi Tai raised an eyebrow at this, but he hardly had enough energy to question every little thing that the strange person that appeared to be leading the false Hunters of the Cosmos did, so he didn’t bother voicing his continued confusion and just carried on. Whatever it was, he was bound to witness it with his own eyes very shortly, so long as she was telling the truth, so he could judge whether or not this group truly was able to open up spatial gateways in the middle of nowhere, and whether they do have some relation to Primordial Cosmos.
“Oh, and before there’s a misunderstanding, I need to warn you that when planar energy is all elements, including pure planar, at once, it can appear rather misleading,” she suddenly said.
He had no time to question what she meant as she suddenly raised her hand into the air, solid planar energy forming around her hand and spreading out into a large vertical array in front of them. The process in and of itself was hardly unusual for those in the fourth realm, as she clearly was, save for the exceptional fluidity of the movements and the manipulation of energy, but what caused him and a number of his soldiers to tighten their grips on their weapons was the way in which that energy appeared to be akin to a gateway into an endless cosmos, barred only by chains somewhere far, far in the distance.
With such a thing, having no warning at all would have resulted in him cutting her down where she stood without a single question asked, then destroying her body, her followers, and then checking whether they could have possibly made a mistake while looting them.
“Told you. This has nothing to do with a Primordial Deity, although I have come across two forms of their influence already. However, those were Primordial Nature and Primordial Corruption, while this started all the way in the first realm,” she explained, obviously having noticed the glares suddenly aimed at her, “I could’ve disguised it easily, but I didn’t. I am trusting you, so you should trust me.”
To prove the truth of her words, she revoked her hand once the array was complete and brought out a small sphere of energy, looking much like the one currently floating in front of them, then changed it to flame, and water, then wood, earth and metal, before switching it to blood, silver-leaf, metal ore and lightning energy. While the notion of disguising or somehow altering one’s energy wasn’t entirely impossible, if highly inefficient most of the time, doing so this quickly was.
Had it just been visual, perhaps General Wu Yi Tai could have assumed that there was some kind of primordial deity disguise method at play, but rather than that, everything about her energy also seemed to change with it, meaning that this was no mere illusory trick.
Truly, if she had wanted to, she could have completely changed her aura and energy while they had been heading towards the fortress and she stayed back, and upon her return they might not have realised that it was her at all. Such a thing did not convince him of her honesty or reliability, but it did confirm that if she did wish to hide some part of her identity, she could have easily done so when they met at the edge of the battlefield. If she somehow possessed the ability to instantly copy the planar energy of others, she could have even disguised herself as a member of the Hunters with incredible ease by simply altering her aura to one similar to Long Wuchu.
As such, what he was left with was the question of their hideout, and the reason why she had decided to be so open with him. If she truly wasn’t a worshiper of a Primordial Deity, they didn’t need to talk at all. He could have just been on his way, seeking a different target or returning with word that the worshiper couldn’t be found.
Still, all of that thought and contemplation momentarily faded away when the space occupied by the array suddenly tore, a great rift forming within it and stabilising into a gateway.
Through it, as clearly as one could see through air itself, Wu Yi Tai was able to see strange, rectangular stone buildings, people walking around, and a place free from the sandstorm raging around them, although some did make it in through the gateway itself. Everything seemed only a step away, and yet they couldn’t possibly be that close to anything, not without there being some other illusion at play to obscure the presence of all the people and buildings, not to mention the absence of the storm.
“This is a spatial realm gateway, openable easily if one happens to control a spatial realm. Come through, I have only so much energy to waste on keeping this open,” Wei Yi said, partly distorting the truth with her words.
It was only easy to open a spatial gateway like that with a stabilisation point, such as the one at Paragon, but moving it and displacing it within a limited range was very much doable without significant effort. Furthermore, she wasn’t so much concerned about her infinite energy as she was about the potential of one of the Greats making it over to them and realising what was happening, at which point all of her plans, ideas and preparations would effectively be worthless. Using a gateway like this was safer than a transportation array, since it was merely displacing a gateway rather than opening a new hole into the spatial realm, but both were dangerous, nonetheless.
If not for the fact that it is rather difficult to get into the desert fortress, Paragon, without at least partially disabling the sandstorm barrier that currently ensured that it was mostly free from outside interaction and interference, she would have preferred to simply lead the Hunters of the Cosmos into the fortress normally while obscuring their senses with the sandstorm.
Fortunately, people tended to trust others more when they knew more about them and thought that there were fewer secrets to learn about them, so giving away a few to this man was useful. If he remained in the fortress, he would learn of it quickly anyway, and if he did not, he would be unlikely to make it out alive anyway. Only if he somehow earned her absolute trust would she let him go any time after bringing him inside, while his allegiances were still uncertain.
After a brief pause during which he and many of the Hunters of the Cosmos couldn’t help but stare at the gateway, the simplicity yet the sheer power of something like that awing a group that likely didn’t possess a spatial realm or even a seventh realm expert of their own, General Wu Yi Tai managed to pull himself together and steady his posture, the slight movement causing most of his followers to also snap out o their daze and focus on the gateway. To prove that it was safe to come through, Wei Yi had waved over to Great Dark and any of the other Ascendant’s Arbiters at the front so that they would come through first, and by now the Hunters could confirm that the gateway did indeed seem to work exactly like one should.
Thus, with some remaining wariness, he stepped forward, and then so did his men.
Just as Wei Yi had presumed, the Hunters did lack a spatial realm, and they had never had the fortune or misfortune of exploring a spatial realm of their own, and thus they lacked the knowledge of what it was like to cross space. Wu Yi Tai tensed up as he stepped in, perhaps presuming that it would be akin to being violently thrown from one place to another – despite what he had already seen from others that crossed the gateway – but he almost felt too little when he did cross. He had to double check that he was through, as it just seemed too simple.
Indeed, spatial gateways were an incredible method of transportation, although few had ever used it even during the golden age of the Master of Yi City for that purpose. Most districts had at least one spatial realm in the past, and there were certainly stabilisation points that could be utilised for gateways, but to link two places in the Planar Continents was far easier than to tunnel to a weaker space like a spatial realm. As a result, almost every gateway was into one of the district’s spatial realms, and since they would be positioned at different places, they might as well point to different parts of the realm.
Essentially, it wasn’t that the people of the past hadn’t considered such an option, since Wei Yi knew that they must have thought about it at least once if she had done so nearly instantly, but it had not been needed when everyone could travel freely between districts with a higher cultivation than today.
As their general passed through the gateway, the other members of the Hunters of the Cosmos followed with decreased wariness, and so they slowly poured through after him. Due to the limited width of the opening, they did need to limit the number that went in at once, but most seemed to be more disciplined than Long Wuchu, who was just following the Arbiters, and were able to properly adjust the width of their lines as to make it in.
After they were all inside, looking around at the residents of Paragon while they looked with some curiosity regarding the identity of this new group, Wei Yi also brought in the Arbiters that had gone along with her, adjusting the height of the gateway just a little to allow more people through. On the way in, Chao Ru did try to approach her, having failed to take notice of her early enough before, but Wei Yi gestured for her to hurry through. They still had plenty of time to talk later, if necessary. With everyone in and passively surrounding the Hunters of the Cosmos simply by spreading out and talking to some of the other people in the fortress, Wei Yi was able to glance back, both with spiritual perception and her eyes, then step inside while bidding the gateway to return.
The moment after she made it into Paragon, the gateway behind her distorted for a moment while the view went from the desert to the mountains at the centre of the prison realm, while the gateway that she had moved into that desert returned to its position on the left, where it led into Beast’s Rest. At the time of her moving the gateway, few had wanted to come through in those two places, so she chose to borrow the spatial connection from them for a while.
“Alright, everyone! Arbiters, you can go relax for a while – and I will find you, Chao Ru, when I get this done – since there shouldn’t be any urgent matters for a bit. Hunters, or, primarily, Wu Yi Tai, I think we need to have a chat first.”
“Indeed, I think so as well. Why have you brought us to this fortress, and through that spatial realm?”
“Fine, talking here is fine too. I wish to cooperate, and obtain something, strictly for myself. Let’s start with that, since that is far easier and quicker to resolve – or so I’d hope,” Wei Yi said, “The thing that I want is whatever method you have for awakening the Hunter’s Toxin physique within yourselves. I happen to need it.”
“The method?” the general frowned, looking at her with a gaze full of suspicion, “You wish to awaken that physique in the people of this fortress?”
“Do listen to me sometimes, general. It might help you more than you think. No, I want to use it myself. If it is something physical, you can just give it to me and not tell me how it works, if it isn’t, I won’t bother promising that I’d never use it on another since promises are worthless. However, judging by the state of that hand of yours, that method of yours isn’t without flaw, so it would only be my enemies that I’d try forcing it onto,” she told him.
“… What do you need it for, then? Your body is strong enough as it is, so you likely have a physique.”
“All the suspicion for wishing to obtain a flawed method… How harsh. Let us just say I benefit from having that method, you have it, and depending on how difficult it is for you to give it to me, I see no other reason why you wouldn’t.”
“You want to also talk of cooperation, do you not? What is it that you will give us, if I was to provide you with the method?” Wu Yi Tai asked.
“Knowledge. I have already told you that a group you might have heard of has sought to bring you down for your snooping, and that we happen to share the same foe in that regard. So long as we get along well, I can tell you more, you can pass that along to the higher leadership of the Hunters of the Cosmos, and our two forces could work together to rid the world of a menace besides the primordial deities,” Wei Yi explained, pausing for a little while before sharing, “I could also tell you a secret you might or might not be aware of about them as well. Could help you a lot in your mission.”
“I find it difficult to trust you, but I shall allow this nonetheless. However, I would not speak with you in the open. Where can we talk, and where can my people rest? I would rather not leave everyone out here, standing out on the street.”
“We do have some residences for you, but they aren’t the most spacious. They’re good enough for a little while.”
He had little space to shrug in his armour, but that was almost certainly the gesture he was going for before he told the rest of his men to prepare to move after her. Since they were apparently fine with the minimal space she had offered, she brought them to the large structures with countless small rooms within them, finding one that did not see any use by anyone else just so that there would be no disturbances for either side.
When they got to see the residences in person, they remained accepting of the offer, so most of them could be assumed to have visited the Ning District at one point in time judging by the ease with which they occupied the spaces. A single structure had just enough rooms to fit the army of the Hunters of the Cosmos that had come with Wu Yi Tai, even if it didn’t have much room after they began removing most of their armour inside of them, filling them with pieces of abyss metal, various bags, pouches and tools that they would presumably use for one reason or another within their regular hunts for the worshipers of Primordial Cosmos. Personally, Wei Yi was unable to see the use of most of them, but she did also lack vital understanding of the primordial deity that might explain their use.
Since he had been satisfied with the accommodations, the general followed her into the underground portion of the fortress, marvelling at but managing to obscure most of his interest in the extreme amount of space beneath the fortress, as well as all of the ores and gems that glistened in the distance.
This was a safer place than the prison realm simply due to the fact that Wei Yi couldn’t be certain of whether the Greats might have some method of tracking people that enter or leave the Kong Prison Realm, or perhaps some way of noticing that a group had left the primary world through some means. If they were paying attention to the Hunters of the Cosmos and realised that they had disappeared into a spatial realm, one where their Rebel seemed to be, where Ping Wu died, and after someone with a strange degree of strength appeared seemingly out of nowhere only a few months back, they might check the prison realm, which wouldn’t be ideal.
Only going through the gateway that was made through the Kong Prison Realm didn’t have as much risk, since it was an instant passage through space as far as she understood it. As such, it would be safe to employ in the future, if more spatial gateway points could be discovered and claimed by the Ascendant’s Arbiters, for the use in instant transportation.
They headed to one of the edges of the underground portion where no ore entity had manifested yet, and no wall was needed to block them from sight or from shooting their ore shards at random people, and sat down on an outcropping of stone facing one another.
“So, do tell me whether the Hunter’s Toxin is obtained through cultivation or some kind of pill.”
“It is more akin to an elixir, and one that I do not know how to produce, so do not bother asking,” Wu Yi Tai stated, reaching into a part of his armour and removing a small object that resembled a glass shard, “I have one of the elixirs with me, and I can provide it to you, but only so long as you will agree to meeting with the commander of the Hunters of the Cosmos, undergo some of the screening arrays and techniques, then share just what group is going after us and attempting to strike us down. So long as these conditions are met, I shall give you this.”
“Doesn’t look much like an elixir… Hm? Spatial properties? What is that, exactly?”
“Our commander calls it a spatial shard. It is a piece of fragmented space from something that had once been a storage ring, or some storage space, and it has managed to endure. It preserves things inside of it, so it is perfect for carrying anything volatile or dangerous,” he said.
“Oh, so that is how that works. Good to know… I’ll need to loot the Kong District, then, won’t it?” Wei Yi muttered to herself, since the Kong Holy Grounds were a rather decent spatial realm that would be bound to leave some shards behind like that which could be put to use in storing and delivering things of value between districts, for instance, “I can agree to that, since I do intend to share that information with quite a few people eventually. As for the screening process, I do not mind. I am personally rather interested in whether there are any Primordial Deity influences upon my body.”
“For your sake, you should hope that there are none.”
“If you do try to kill me just because I had once interacted with something vaguely related to a primordial deity, I am not going to even attempt to ally with a group like you. Murdering random people for some vague relation to an entity they might not have even been aware of is not something I wish to personally side with.”
“We shall see, Wei Yi,” Wu Yi Tai said, handing her the spatial shard with some reluctance, “You know how spatial storage works, so I’m sure you know how to use it.”
In truth, she did not have much of a clue how a regular spatial storage method worked, as she was mostly certain that the otherworldly gift she usually made use of was significantly different in the way in which it worked from the usual methods of spatial storage within the Planar Continents. However, spatial laws in general were similar enough, and she already had some practise with the Kong Prison Realm, even if she had only done so much to it, so she did not choose to deny his words and readily took the shard.
It did indeed resemble a shard of glass in many ways, being no larger than a finger, but upon closer inspection, the broken edges and the surviving surface reflected things that did not exist around her, with light that did not shine upon the shard. Under certain angles, this resembled stars, and under others, clouds, sunlight, and even a lake at one point.
When an opening into her House of Gold was created, it did not resemble that exact, and it was quite a shame, since this did look like it would be rather impressive to utilise.
Sending her spiritual perception into it, just as she could into the House of Gold, she saw a single elixir flask floating in the void, precariously positioned against the edges of the spatial storage. She was able to scan through it fully, sensing that the fluid within was highly toxic and yet did contain a noticeable amount of physique energy, although it was clearly impure and rather unusually formed, as could be expected from an unusual method of obtaining an absolute physique. It was likely this that caused the effects of it to be rather volatile in nature when consumed in terms of the effects that it applied onto the consumer, although it did raise a question.
“I know you lot are called Hunters, but is the Hunter’s Toxin an effective physique against your foe?”
“In a way, although it is not ideal. The poisons and venoms that it can produce are far more effective than any ordinary poison can be, especially when used by someone capable in the field of cultivation and physique usage, allowing them to affect energy itself,” Wu Yi Tai said, “The ideal would be the legendary Conqueror’s Eye, or some aspect of it. It would empower the Hunter’s Toxin and permit a certain degree of impact upon the world that no other physique would allow for.”
“So that is how it is. Very interesting,” she said as she found that removing something from a spatial storage method was more difficult than she had first imagined. Fortunately for her, she had a method that could work far better.
The House of Gold was clearly a powerful spatial storage item, so why mess around with a small shard when she could just take the elixir and move it into the otherworldly gift, from which it was far easier to remove or place things? Furthermore, she had spent a long enough time holding this piece of glass-like substance – possibly something relating to the spatial metal that had once made up the whole spatial storage item – that she could likely figure out a solution to interacting with another one, if she found one, without needing to keep it in her hands. Perhaps she didn’t even need to remove anything.
“Is this something that you have to return to the Hunters?”
“Spatial shards are rare and even that one is large for the usual size. Most would fit only a ring, or a seal, or perhaps a scrap of paper, if you are particularly unlucky with your find,” Wu Yi Tai explained, “In other words, if you think you can keep that thing to yourself and do as you like with it, you are very much wrong.”
“I never said that, so do not put words in my mouth. I just wanted to play around with it for a while,” she replied, using the House of Gold to displace the elixir into it.
While she also pondered how she could potentially use that power to steal from all kinds of spatial storage spaces without anyone being aware that she was even doing anything, since otherworldly artefacts do not appear before spiritual perception and using this one in particular requires no obvious outside action whatsoever, she reached out and grabbed at the air in front of the shard, pulling out the elixir. She made sure to do it that way as to not raise unnecessary suspicion about her own powers.
“There, keep it. So, did you just drink this, or is there some proper method of preparation?”
“First of all, you… Gah, you wish to consume it yourself? You are insane… You must first be prepared and at your peak, with all of your energy at the ready. Ensure that your body is prepared to handle the sheer power of the vile toxin within that elixir. Then-”
“Do I just need to let it spread out through my body? In that case, don’t mind me, I’ll just be drinking this…” she removed the cork and gulped down the elixir in several seconds.
The sound of the container melting in her hands as she held and then drank the elixir was highly audible, as it was when she had tilted it to drink from the top. When it touched the inside of her mouth and sank down her throat, with some difficulty due to the unpleasant texture and consistency of the substance, she could distinctly taste the sheer killing potential within every single drop. However, while most would naturally throw such a thing away, spit it all out and wash their whole bodies just to be absolutely sure they were rid of the toxin, she rather enjoyed getting the occasional taste of something, and so just swallowed it calmly.
Then, so that it didn’t try to wreak havoc on her system without her permission, she surrounded every drop with her own physique energy, rapidly burning through quite a bit of liquid that seemed to be purely harmful to the consumer and leaving behind a smaller but purer quantity of green fluid within her body.
It could be absorbed and affected by her physique energy, but it was clear that it wouldn’t instantly merge with her and add another entry to her list of physique abilities just yet. While her energy could hardly provide her with a clear and concise report on why this was, she suspected that it was due to the impurity of the energy, as well as the strange way in which it was delivered, at least when compared to most of her previous acquisitions. Some time would likely be necessary in order for everything to be fully processed, then incorporated into her physique as it normally would be.
“Wh- How have you not burned yet?”
“Burned? Do you mean dissolved? Poison doesn’t burn unless it is a fire-type substance made flashier than it needs to be.”
“While that is what I meant, I also don’t understand how your throat is still intact. How do you have a voice after consuming that vile thing? After I had drunk that, I could barely walk for a month!” Wu Yi Tai shared unnecessarily, “What are you made of?”
“Some part immortal gold, some part… alright, just kidding. I’m a human with a lot of opportunities, a lot of gains, and a great deal of personal power. When you have all of those combined in a specific field, you tend to go against most expectations with quite a lot of ease,” Wei Yi said, “I made some inscriptions when I had the spare time, and ended up surprising people for more than two planar stones with some plates worth far less than that on their own, for example.”
“If you say so… The physique doesn’t seem to be awakening within you.”
“It will, give it some time. I just need time to digest the elixir properly, and then it will be put to use. Thank you very much for your contribution, General Wu Yi Tai. You can remain in Paragon for a while, and if there is anything, Yi Shi Ming, the overseer of the place, can send you out to pursue someone or to report to your commander. For now, just relax.”
“What are you planning, exactly? What are those people that wished us dead to the point of slaughtering several squadrons?”
“Telling you here isn’t particularly safe, so I will not do so. I could do so later, but in the near future, I expect to be busy, so you may speak either with Luo Lia Kun, Great Dark – that sixth realm figure that came with us – or Yi Shi Ming, all of whom can provide full explanations of a number of things.”
Without giving him much time to speak, she vanished from the spot and placed herself into the prison realm, from which she then exited onto the surface of Paragon.
She could’ve left normally, but that would take too much time when she was in quite the rush to do something before the Great Families had any chance of interacting with whatever message that Ping Wu had sent to them. Since she hadn’t been able to trap or interpret it, she was unable to know what it was or to whom it was sent, so she needed to find out as much as possible, as quickly as possible, if she wanted to have some chance to remaining in her current fortress safely.
Thus, she rushed out and found Shun Liu Min in her residence, who had just woken up and thus looked delightfully cute with her half-shut eyes, messy blond hair, and her confused expression at the sudden intrusion. The maid was also not wearing anything beneath the sheets, and thus treated her abrupt intruder to a rather nice view.
“Wei Yi… Sorry, have I overslept for something?”
“No, you have not… and don’t seem to be developing a physique out of nowhere, so I needn’t worry about that, at least… I would actually like to ask you to do something,” Wei Yi said, sitting down beside her on the bed, “Would you mind contributing to my learning of everything related to maid duties?”
“…” Shun Liu Min looked at her in confusion, “The fuck? Am I still asleep?”
“Nope. I can kiss you to wake you up, but then you’ll not be able to go back to sleep for quite a while, so be sure whether or not you will agree first.”
“Sure, I guess. Go o-”
V4C23: Acquiring the Hunter’s Toxin
Naturally, Wei Yi was unable to leave without grabbing Shi Bao Ya, cleaning away any evidence of their presence, and just generally ensuring that there would be as few things to put them in danger later as was possible. In addition, she did not know the consequence of whatever message had been sent by Ping Wu, and thus couldn’t tell whether there would be a swarm of Great Family members rushing in if they wasted a little too much time. Huang Yu Di was also put somewhere safe at the end.
In general, it seemed wiser to avoid such things, and so that was exactly what she did, clearing the barriers around camp, removing their traces from the sand, grabbing up the embers and anchor points left behind just in case either one could be traced somehow. When she was ready, she followed the others.
At her behest, they had run in the direction of the Desert Fortress, Paragon, and while they would be unable to reach it on their own even if she had permitted the obstructive properties of the sand to not apply to them, getting them closer to it would make it easer to mess with the current spatial gateway system that the fortress used. Making a new one would require either another point on which to stabilise the gateway, or for her to reach the seventh realm and gain some vague abilities to influence the world around her in spatial and temporal means, but moving one was always easy, and she had already split her gateway into multiple pieces. She just needed to pick one up and move it.
With Yi Shi Ming’s aid and her own cultivation realm that always put her nearer to the next one than her own, especially while she had the advantage of her fifth realm mental energy cultivation, doing something like that wasn’t completely impossible, especially not if it was only for a brief period of time, but such complex operations were always made far easier by proximity. The less a spatial gateway needed to be separated from another, the less energy it would take to displace it and allow for travel through it.
Thus, to make it easiest for herself while giving Wu Yi Tai as little time as possible to ask her questions, since they would just be annoying to answer without giving her all that much in return, she did not run as swiftly as she could, limiting herself to a speed closer to the one she had displayed while running alongside him into battle. It would seem more reasonable in his eyes, and it would let him get as closer as possible to the inner portion of the sandstorm alongside the rest of her Arbiters before she needed to bring all of them through. Fortunately, the volume and mass of the things being carried through a spatial gateway did not appear to matter, only the gateway and its size itself, so at the very least that much was made far easier by the laws of the world.
Speaking of the laws of the world, she had acquired her Great Stride of the Dao of Law quite some time ago, speaking in terms of when she had first acquired her comprehension of Dao, not in terms of her overall lifespan, but she didn’t notice it budging any further just yet. She had a slight perception of the way in which her Dao comprehension progressed, and it was not one that did change.
This would be fine, given how much her Dao of Law shifted at sudden moments of enlightenment, but she had just witnessed the way in which a black sun, something that she didn’t even know existed prior to a few weeks ago, exploded. She saw time stop, which confirmed that this was indeed possible. Wei Yi witnessed how a spatial gateway formed, feeling every part of the process and also came to understand the metal ore energy she had now put to use in the underground portion of Paragon.
Obviously, she was neither the will of the heavens nor some embodiment of the Great Dao, so she couldn’t be sure what full success required, especially not when she made the Ascendant’s Dao seemingly on her own all of a sudden…
‘Now that I think about that, I am suddenly concerned about my own Dao. It came out of nowhere, prompted by a physique that was prompted by cosmic energy which was, in part, prompted by the Truth of the Universe, whatever caused it to end up in me, and Kong Shi Meng before me… Fuck, I’m getting paranoid about things again. For the moment, my Ascendant’s Dao is the best weapon I have, especially if the Dao of Law is not going to become developed at any point,’ she frowned for a moment, clearing her expression soon after, ‘Hm… The Dao is a product of the world, in a way, no? Could the Great Dao lack comprehension of the Dao of Law?’
That was raised as nothing more than a random point, since she hardly had the capabilities to go and interrogate the heavens at the moment, even if she would absolutely love to do so.
There were many issues that they ought to address, or at the very least explain to her if there was some clever reason behind everything they did so far – which she could accept, although she would hardly enjoy it regardless of the way it was explained – but it was difficult for anyone to conclude whether there was even a physical location for the heavens, whether it was in the ground or the sky. To get there would be even more difficult, and she didn’t expect to be able to do it while she was only in the fourth realm.
Whatever the heaven’s will was, it would be no weaker than the ninth realm, given that it was the peak of cultivation in the Planar Continents, and if the otherworldly theories of there being a greater world and realm were accurate, then it might even be above that. Even if she had the best points, arguments and whatever else when she confronted it, whatever entity the heaven’s will was could just swat her away and end her life the moment that it wanted to. She’d just throw away her own life, then.
‘I don’t need to do that yet. If the heavens are in any way interested in a discussion, I’m sure that they’ll come down on their own, if they are able to. Otherwise, I shall wait until the way to the heavens becomes clear to me,’ Wei Yi decided, speeding up as she noticed that Wu Yi Tai was getting close enough to Paragon for her to be able to act.
After a brief sprint, she also got into view of the group of Hunters and Arbiters, then caught up with them a short time after that.
“Hey, Chao Ru, sorry for not chatting more but we’ll be back in the fortress soon enough. See you in a bit!” she called out as she ran past her, waving for a moment while still in sight since Chao Ru had a slower reaction time than she did.
Wu Yi Tai had been at the front of the group, given that he was effectively the second strongest warrior amongst them and was more capable at defensive techniques than Great Dark, at least while the latter had no inscriptions to work with. As such, Wei Yi had been able to check out what the general had made use of while sprinting through, and found that he had not chosen to surround her troops with his own, more numerous as they were, and was keeping them on equal level to his own forces.
That certainly gave a positive impression, which combined with the previous ones to make her conclude, at least for now, that he wasn’t particularly bad, certainly better than the Hammers. They had disappeared a short time after the end of the battle, and, frankly, she was now believing that they were spirits that rose to engage in battle, rather than being physical entities.
Her Vision of Law did not point out any faults, but perhaps she lacked comprehension of the matter of spirits and ghosts that would have permitted her to notice the oddity before they vanished.
She made a note to check out what the Xin family did to have all of their children possess three Dao Vision state marks on their eyes, then proceeded to greet the general while permitting the sandstorm to part around her, “Hello there, General Wu Yi Tai. Had to take my time back there, but you needn’t continue on for much further, since the gateway to our usual place of residence can be opened up almost any moment now.”
“I… see? Gateway? Is a fortress being hidden here?”
“Not quite. Instead, the gateway is in the distance, and we need to open up a quick spatial gateway. I’m sure that you wouldn’t mind, would you?” she asked, glancing away as she realised how oddly she was talking, “The fuck was that? Anyway, we have a fortress, and we’ll be coming along to it quickly.”
General Wu Yi Tai raised an eyebrow at this, but he hardly had enough energy to question every little thing that the strange person that appeared to be leading the false Hunters of the Cosmos did, so he didn’t bother voicing his continued confusion and just carried on. Whatever it was, he was bound to witness it with his own eyes very shortly, so long as she was telling the truth, so he could judge whether or not this group truly was able to open up spatial gateways in the middle of nowhere, and whether they do have some relation to Primordial Cosmos.
“Oh, and before there’s a misunderstanding, I need to warn you that when planar energy is all elements, including pure planar, at once, it can appear rather misleading,” she suddenly said.
He had no time to question what she meant as she suddenly raised her hand into the air, solid planar energy forming around her hand and spreading out into a large vertical array in front of them. The process in and of itself was hardly unusual for those in the fourth realm, as she clearly was, save for the exceptional fluidity of the movements and the manipulation of energy, but what caused him and a number of his soldiers to tighten their grips on their weapons was the way in which that energy appeared to be akin to a gateway into an endless cosmos, barred only by chains somewhere far, far in the distance.
With such a thing, having no warning at all would have resulted in him cutting her down where she stood without a single question asked, then destroying her body, her followers, and then checking whether they could have possibly made a mistake while looting them.
“Told you. This has nothing to do with a Primordial Deity, although I have come across two forms of their influence already. However, those were Primordial Nature and Primordial Corruption, while this started all the way in the first realm,” she explained, obviously having noticed the glares suddenly aimed at her, “I could’ve disguised it easily, but I didn’t. I am trusting you, so you should trust me.”
To prove the truth of her words, she revoked her hand once the array was complete and brought out a small sphere of energy, looking much like the one currently floating in front of them, then changed it to flame, and water, then wood, earth and metal, before switching it to blood, silver-leaf, metal ore and lightning energy. While the notion of disguising or somehow altering one’s energy wasn’t entirely impossible, if highly inefficient most of the time, doing so this quickly was.
Had it just been visual, perhaps General Wu Yi Tai could have assumed that there was some kind of primordial deity disguise method at play, but rather than that, everything about her energy also seemed to change with it, meaning that this was no mere illusory trick.
Truly, if she had wanted to, she could have completely changed her aura and energy while they had been heading towards the fortress and she stayed back, and upon her return they might not have realised that it was her at all. Such a thing did not convince him of her honesty or reliability, but it did confirm that if she did wish to hide some part of her identity, she could have easily done so when they met at the edge of the battlefield. If she somehow possessed the ability to instantly copy the planar energy of others, she could have even disguised herself as a member of the Hunters with incredible ease by simply altering her aura to one similar to Long Wuchu.
As such, what he was left with was the question of their hideout, and the reason why she had decided to be so open with him. If she truly wasn’t a worshiper of a Primordial Deity, they didn’t need to talk at all. He could have just been on his way, seeking a different target or returning with word that the worshiper couldn’t be found.
Still, all of that thought and contemplation momentarily faded away when the space occupied by the array suddenly tore, a great rift forming within it and stabilising into a gateway.
Through it, as clearly as one could see through air itself, Wu Yi Tai was able to see strange, rectangular stone buildings, people walking around, and a place free from the sandstorm raging around them, although some did make it in through the gateway itself. Everything seemed only a step away, and yet they couldn’t possibly be that close to anything, not without there being some other illusion at play to obscure the presence of all the people and buildings, not to mention the absence of the storm.
“This is a spatial realm gateway, openable easily if one happens to control a spatial realm. Come through, I have only so much energy to waste on keeping this open,” Wei Yi said, partly distorting the truth with her words.
It was only easy to open a spatial gateway like that with a stabilisation point, such as the one at Paragon, but moving it and displacing it within a limited range was very much doable without significant effort. Furthermore, she wasn’t so much concerned about her infinite energy as she was about the potential of one of the Greats making it over to them and realising what was happening, at which point all of her plans, ideas and preparations would effectively be worthless. Using a gateway like this was safer than a transportation array, since it was merely displacing a gateway rather than opening a new hole into the spatial realm, but both were dangerous, nonetheless.
If not for the fact that it is rather difficult to get into the desert fortress, Paragon, without at least partially disabling the sandstorm barrier that currently ensured that it was mostly free from outside interaction and interference, she would have preferred to simply lead the Hunters of the Cosmos into the fortress normally while obscuring their senses with the sandstorm.
Fortunately, people tended to trust others more when they knew more about them and thought that there were fewer secrets to learn about them, so giving away a few to this man was useful. If he remained in the fortress, he would learn of it quickly anyway, and if he did not, he would be unlikely to make it out alive anyway. Only if he somehow earned her absolute trust would she let him go any time after bringing him inside, while his allegiances were still uncertain.
After a brief pause during which he and many of the Hunters of the Cosmos couldn’t help but stare at the gateway, the simplicity yet the sheer power of something like that awing a group that likely didn’t possess a spatial realm or even a seventh realm expert of their own, General Wu Yi Tai managed to pull himself together and steady his posture, the slight movement causing most of his followers to also snap out o their daze and focus on the gateway. To prove that it was safe to come through, Wei Yi had waved over to Great Dark and any of the other Ascendant’s Arbiters at the front so that they would come through first, and by now the Hunters could confirm that the gateway did indeed seem to work exactly like one should.
Thus, with some remaining wariness, he stepped forward, and then so did his men.
Just as Wei Yi had presumed, the Hunters did lack a spatial realm, and they had never had the fortune or misfortune of exploring a spatial realm of their own, and thus they lacked the knowledge of what it was like to cross space. Wu Yi Tai tensed up as he stepped in, perhaps presuming that it would be akin to being violently thrown from one place to another – despite what he had already seen from others that crossed the gateway – but he almost felt too little when he did cross. He had to double check that he was through, as it just seemed too simple.
Indeed, spatial gateways were an incredible method of transportation, although few had ever used it even during the golden age of the Master of Yi City for that purpose. Most districts had at least one spatial realm in the past, and there were certainly stabilisation points that could be utilised for gateways, but to link two places in the Planar Continents was far easier than to tunnel to a weaker space like a spatial realm. As a result, almost every gateway was into one of the district’s spatial realms, and since they would be positioned at different places, they might as well point to different parts of the realm.
Essentially, it wasn’t that the people of the past hadn’t considered such an option, since Wei Yi knew that they must have thought about it at least once if she had done so nearly instantly, but it had not been needed when everyone could travel freely between districts with a higher cultivation than today.
As their general passed through the gateway, the other members of the Hunters of the Cosmos followed with decreased wariness, and so they slowly poured through after him. Due to the limited width of the opening, they did need to limit the number that went in at once, but most seemed to be more disciplined than Long Wuchu, who was just following the Arbiters, and were able to properly adjust the width of their lines as to make it in.
After they were all inside, looking around at the residents of Paragon while they looked with some curiosity regarding the identity of this new group, Wei Yi also brought in the Arbiters that had gone along with her, adjusting the height of the gateway just a little to allow more people through. On the way in, Chao Ru did try to approach her, having failed to take notice of her early enough before, but Wei Yi gestured for her to hurry through. They still had plenty of time to talk later, if necessary. With everyone in and passively surrounding the Hunters of the Cosmos simply by spreading out and talking to some of the other people in the fortress, Wei Yi was able to glance back, both with spiritual perception and her eyes, then step inside while bidding the gateway to return.
The moment after she made it into Paragon, the gateway behind her distorted for a moment while the view went from the desert to the mountains at the centre of the prison realm, while the gateway that she had moved into that desert returned to its position on the left, where it led into Beast’s Rest. At the time of her moving the gateway, few had wanted to come through in those two places, so she chose to borrow the spatial connection from them for a while.
“Alright, everyone! Arbiters, you can go relax for a while – and I will find you, Chao Ru, when I get this done – since there shouldn’t be any urgent matters for a bit. Hunters, or, primarily, Wu Yi Tai, I think we need to have a chat first.”
“Indeed, I think so as well. Why have you brought us to this fortress, and through that spatial realm?”
“Fine, talking here is fine too. I wish to cooperate, and obtain something, strictly for myself. Let’s start with that, since that is far easier and quicker to resolve – or so I’d hope,” Wei Yi said, “The thing that I want is whatever method you have for awakening the Hunter’s Toxin physique within yourselves. I happen to need it.”
“The method?” the general frowned, looking at her with a gaze full of suspicion, “You wish to awaken that physique in the people of this fortress?”
“Do listen to me sometimes, general. It might help you more than you think. No, I want to use it myself. If it is something physical, you can just give it to me and not tell me how it works, if it isn’t, I won’t bother promising that I’d never use it on another since promises are worthless. However, judging by the state of that hand of yours, that method of yours isn’t without flaw, so it would only be my enemies that I’d try forcing it onto,” she told him.
“… What do you need it for, then? Your body is strong enough as it is, so you likely have a physique.”
“All the suspicion for wishing to obtain a flawed method… How harsh. Let us just say I benefit from having that method, you have it, and depending on how difficult it is for you to give it to me, I see no other reason why you wouldn’t.”
“You want to also talk of cooperation, do you not? What is it that you will give us, if I was to provide you with the method?” Wu Yi Tai asked.
“Knowledge. I have already told you that a group you might have heard of has sought to bring you down for your snooping, and that we happen to share the same foe in that regard. So long as we get along well, I can tell you more, you can pass that along to the higher leadership of the Hunters of the Cosmos, and our two forces could work together to rid the world of a menace besides the primordial deities,” Wei Yi explained, pausing for a little while before sharing, “I could also tell you a secret you might or might not be aware of about them as well. Could help you a lot in your mission.”
“I find it difficult to trust you, but I shall allow this nonetheless. However, I would not speak with you in the open. Where can we talk, and where can my people rest? I would rather not leave everyone out here, standing out on the street.”
“We do have some residences for you, but they aren’t the most spacious. They’re good enough for a little while.”
He had little space to shrug in his armour, but that was almost certainly the gesture he was going for before he told the rest of his men to prepare to move after her. Since they were apparently fine with the minimal space she had offered, she brought them to the large structures with countless small rooms within them, finding one that did not see any use by anyone else just so that there would be no disturbances for either side.
When they got to see the residences in person, they remained accepting of the offer, so most of them could be assumed to have visited the Ning District at one point in time judging by the ease with which they occupied the spaces. A single structure had just enough rooms to fit the army of the Hunters of the Cosmos that had come with Wu Yi Tai, even if it didn’t have much room after they began removing most of their armour inside of them, filling them with pieces of abyss metal, various bags, pouches and tools that they would presumably use for one reason or another within their regular hunts for the worshipers of Primordial Cosmos. Personally, Wei Yi was unable to see the use of most of them, but she did also lack vital understanding of the primordial deity that might explain their use.
Since he had been satisfied with the accommodations, the general followed her into the underground portion of the fortress, marvelling at but managing to obscure most of his interest in the extreme amount of space beneath the fortress, as well as all of the ores and gems that glistened in the distance.
This was a safer place than the prison realm simply due to the fact that Wei Yi couldn’t be certain of whether the Greats might have some method of tracking people that enter or leave the Kong Prison Realm, or perhaps some way of noticing that a group had left the primary world through some means. If they were paying attention to the Hunters of the Cosmos and realised that they had disappeared into a spatial realm, one where their Rebel seemed to be, where Ping Wu died, and after someone with a strange degree of strength appeared seemingly out of nowhere only a few months back, they might check the prison realm, which wouldn’t be ideal.
Only going through the gateway that was made through the Kong Prison Realm didn’t have as much risk, since it was an instant passage through space as far as she understood it. As such, it would be safe to employ in the future, if more spatial gateway points could be discovered and claimed by the Ascendant’s Arbiters, for the use in instant transportation.
They headed to one of the edges of the underground portion where no ore entity had manifested yet, and no wall was needed to block them from sight or from shooting their ore shards at random people, and sat down on an outcropping of stone facing one another.
“So, do tell me whether the Hunter’s Toxin is obtained through cultivation or some kind of pill.”
“It is more akin to an elixir, and one that I do not know how to produce, so do not bother asking,” Wu Yi Tai stated, reaching into a part of his armour and removing a small object that resembled a glass shard, “I have one of the elixirs with me, and I can provide it to you, but only so long as you will agree to meeting with the commander of the Hunters of the Cosmos, undergo some of the screening arrays and techniques, then share just what group is going after us and attempting to strike us down. So long as these conditions are met, I shall give you this.”
“Doesn’t look much like an elixir… Hm? Spatial properties? What is that, exactly?”
“Our commander calls it a spatial shard. It is a piece of fragmented space from something that had once been a storage ring, or some storage space, and it has managed to endure. It preserves things inside of it, so it is perfect for carrying anything volatile or dangerous,” he said.
“Oh, so that is how that works. Good to know… I’ll need to loot the Kong District, then, won’t it?” Wei Yi muttered to herself, since the Kong Holy Grounds were a rather decent spatial realm that would be bound to leave some shards behind like that which could be put to use in storing and delivering things of value between districts, for instance, “I can agree to that, since I do intend to share that information with quite a few people eventually. As for the screening process, I do not mind. I am personally rather interested in whether there are any Primordial Deity influences upon my body.”
“For your sake, you should hope that there are none.”
“If you do try to kill me just because I had once interacted with something vaguely related to a primordial deity, I am not going to even attempt to ally with a group like you. Murdering random people for some vague relation to an entity they might not have even been aware of is not something I wish to personally side with.”
“We shall see, Wei Yi,” Wu Yi Tai said, handing her the spatial shard with some reluctance, “You know how spatial storage works, so I’m sure you know how to use it.”
In truth, she did not have much of a clue how a regular spatial storage method worked, as she was mostly certain that the otherworldly gift she usually made use of was significantly different in the way in which it worked from the usual methods of spatial storage within the Planar Continents. However, spatial laws in general were similar enough, and she already had some practise with the Kong Prison Realm, even if she had only done so much to it, so she did not choose to deny his words and readily took the shard.
It did indeed resemble a shard of glass in many ways, being no larger than a finger, but upon closer inspection, the broken edges and the surviving surface reflected things that did not exist around her, with light that did not shine upon the shard. Under certain angles, this resembled stars, and under others, clouds, sunlight, and even a lake at one point.
When an opening into her House of Gold was created, it did not resemble that exact, and it was quite a shame, since this did look like it would be rather impressive to utilise.
Sending her spiritual perception into it, just as she could into the House of Gold, she saw a single elixir flask floating in the void, precariously positioned against the edges of the spatial storage. She was able to scan through it fully, sensing that the fluid within was highly toxic and yet did contain a noticeable amount of physique energy, although it was clearly impure and rather unusually formed, as could be expected from an unusual method of obtaining an absolute physique. It was likely this that caused the effects of it to be rather volatile in nature when consumed in terms of the effects that it applied onto the consumer, although it did raise a question.
“I know you lot are called Hunters, but is the Hunter’s Toxin an effective physique against your foe?”
“In a way, although it is not ideal. The poisons and venoms that it can produce are far more effective than any ordinary poison can be, especially when used by someone capable in the field of cultivation and physique usage, allowing them to affect energy itself,” Wu Yi Tai said, “The ideal would be the legendary Conqueror’s Eye, or some aspect of it. It would empower the Hunter’s Toxin and permit a certain degree of impact upon the world that no other physique would allow for.”
“So that is how it is. Very interesting,” she said as she found that removing something from a spatial storage method was more difficult than she had first imagined. Fortunately for her, she had a method that could work far better.
The House of Gold was clearly a powerful spatial storage item, so why mess around with a small shard when she could just take the elixir and move it into the otherworldly gift, from which it was far easier to remove or place things? Furthermore, she had spent a long enough time holding this piece of glass-like substance – possibly something relating to the spatial metal that had once made up the whole spatial storage item – that she could likely figure out a solution to interacting with another one, if she found one, without needing to keep it in her hands. Perhaps she didn’t even need to remove anything.
“Is this something that you have to return to the Hunters?”
“Spatial shards are rare and even that one is large for the usual size. Most would fit only a ring, or a seal, or perhaps a scrap of paper, if you are particularly unlucky with your find,” Wu Yi Tai explained, “In other words, if you think you can keep that thing to yourself and do as you like with it, you are very much wrong.”
“I never said that, so do not put words in my mouth. I just wanted to play around with it for a while,” she replied, using the House of Gold to displace the elixir into it.
While she also pondered how she could potentially use that power to steal from all kinds of spatial storage spaces without anyone being aware that she was even doing anything, since otherworldly artefacts do not appear before spiritual perception and using this one in particular requires no obvious outside action whatsoever, she reached out and grabbed at the air in front of the shard, pulling out the elixir. She made sure to do it that way as to not raise unnecessary suspicion about her own powers.
“There, keep it. So, did you just drink this, or is there some proper method of preparation?”
“First of all, you… Gah, you wish to consume it yourself? You are insane… You must first be prepared and at your peak, with all of your energy at the ready. Ensure that your body is prepared to handle the sheer power of the vile toxin within that elixir. Then-”
“Do I just need to let it spread out through my body? In that case, don’t mind me, I’ll just be drinking this…” she removed the cork and gulped down the elixir in several seconds.
The sound of the container melting in her hands as she held and then drank the elixir was highly audible, as it was when she had tilted it to drink from the top. When it touched the inside of her mouth and sank down her throat, with some difficulty due to the unpleasant texture and consistency of the substance, she could distinctly taste the sheer killing potential within every single drop. However, while most would naturally throw such a thing away, spit it all out and wash their whole bodies just to be absolutely sure they were rid of the toxin, she rather enjoyed getting the occasional taste of something, and so just swallowed it calmly.
Then, so that it didn’t try to wreak havoc on her system without her permission, she surrounded every drop with her own physique energy, rapidly burning through quite a bit of liquid that seemed to be purely harmful to the consumer and leaving behind a smaller but purer quantity of green fluid within her body.
It could be absorbed and affected by her physique energy, but it was clear that it wouldn’t instantly merge with her and add another entry to her list of physique abilities just yet. While her energy could hardly provide her with a clear and concise report on why this was, she suspected that it was due to the impurity of the energy, as well as the strange way in which it was delivered, at least when compared to most of her previous acquisitions. Some time would likely be necessary in order for everything to be fully processed, then incorporated into her physique as it normally would be.
“Wh- How have you not burned yet?”
“Burned? Do you mean dissolved? Poison doesn’t burn unless it is a fire-type substance made flashier than it needs to be.”
“While that is what I meant, I also don’t understand how your throat is still intact. How do you have a voice after consuming that vile thing? After I had drunk that, I could barely walk for a month!” Wu Yi Tai shared unnecessarily, “What are you made of?”
“Some part immortal gold, some part… alright, just kidding. I’m a human with a lot of opportunities, a lot of gains, and a great deal of personal power. When you have all of those combined in a specific field, you tend to go against most expectations with quite a lot of ease,” Wei Yi said, “I made some inscriptions when I had the spare time, and ended up surprising people for more than two planar stones with some plates worth far less than that on their own, for example.”
“If you say so… The physique doesn’t seem to be awakening within you.”
“It will, give it some time. I just need time to digest the elixir properly, and then it will be put to use. Thank you very much for your contribution, General Wu Yi Tai. You can remain in Paragon for a while, and if there is anything, Yi Shi Ming, the overseer of the place, can send you out to pursue someone or to report to your commander. For now, just relax.”
“What are you planning, exactly? What are those people that wished us dead to the point of slaughtering several squadrons?”
“Telling you here isn’t particularly safe, so I will not do so. I could do so later, but in the near future, I expect to be busy, so you may speak either with Luo Lia Kun, Great Dark – that sixth realm figure that came with us – or Yi Shi Ming, all of whom can provide full explanations of a number of things.”
Without giving him much time to speak, she vanished from the spot and placed herself into the prison realm, from which she then exited onto the surface of Paragon.
She could’ve left normally, but that would take too much time when she was in quite the rush to do something before the Great Families had any chance of interacting with whatever message that Ping Wu had sent to them. Since she hadn’t been able to trap or interpret it, she was unable to know what it was or to whom it was sent, so she needed to find out as much as possible, as quickly as possible, if she wanted to have some chance to remaining in her current fortress safely.
Thus, she rushed out and found Shun Liu Min in her residence, who had just woken up and thus looked delightfully cute with her half-shut eyes, messy blond hair, and her confused expression at the sudden intrusion. The maid was also not wearing anything beneath the sheets, and thus treated her abrupt intruder to a rather nice view.
“Wei Yi… Sorry, have I overslept for something?”
“No, you have not… and don’t seem to be developing a physique out of nowhere, so I needn’t worry about that, at least… I would actually like to ask you to do something,” Wei Yi said, sitting down beside her on the bed, “Would you mind contributing to my learning of everything related to maid duties?”
“…” Shun Liu Min looked at her in confusion, “The fuck? Am I still asleep?”
“Nope. I can kiss you to wake you up, but then you’ll not be able to go back to sleep for quite a while, so be sure whether or not you will agree first.”
“Sure, I guess. Go o-”
