‘Somehow, even when I am in my mental domain, the headache still reaches me… At the very least I still end up being within my own mind when I fall unconscious, instead of being forced to wait it out,’ Wei Yi thought as she sat within the tactical wing of the Augur’s Library, casually sipping on some tea that she had made after getting sufficiently bored of the extremely slow passage of time within her own mind. Unlike the drinks in the prison realm, this manifestation had taste, but it was only the memory of it, without any actual stimulation of her mental or physical taste buds.

After the stones fell upon her, it turned out that there were a few more of them than she had originally expected, and thus the force from the drop still ended up hurting her.

Naturally, she got away with far less injuries than any of the other physique cultivators around her, as they were either dead or about to die from internal and external bleeding, but she ended up losing her consciousness as a result.

Unlike the time that she passed out within the Kong Holy Grounds, she was still able to sense the entirety of her own body, as well as the kinds of things that were happening to it, but going further than an inch away from her skin was impossible, even if she attempted to mobilise her spiritual perception. Even then, it still provided her with enough information to know that she had been removed from the rocks roughly fifteen minutes after they fell on her, likely owing to the amalgam automatons, and was then placed on a bed somewhere within walking distance of the battlefield, although she had no idea whether it was even indoors or not.

She wasn’t too worried about her own state, nor about her surroundings, as she could sense the fact that she would soon wake up, and thus she chose to wait for it to happen before trying to understand anything about the outcome of the battle. Hence, she sat down to drink some tea, then began to read through the various tomes in the mental library once that proved to be insufficiently entertaining.

At the moment, the book she was reading detailed the many physique abilities that she had absorbed during and after the recent battles, with one of them being Eldritch Hold, a greater physique that was able to transform her energy into large tendrils. This wasn’t a physique that she was very familiar with, but the reputation of it wasn’t too good. Apparently, many of those who awakened this physique ended up using it for nefarious, lewd deeds that someone of her age was not permitted to learn about when she had first read through its description.

Now, however, after taking a quick look at how she was able to manipulate the tendrils within her body, she was able to guess a few of the things that they could have been used for.

‘I wonder, if the heavens have designed all of this, then does it mean that human lust is a direct result of their actions, or is Heaven’s Will about as ignorant of this stuff as I was back in the Yi District? Frankly, I’d hope for the latter, since that would mean that if I ever manage to commune with them, I wouldn’t be disgusted by their very existence,’ she pondered randomly before moving on within the book.

By some coincidence, the next physique in the list happened to be the World’s Echo physique, the one that she had obtained from the Lustful Warlord. Unlike the Eldritch Hold physique, it wasn’t just that Wei Yi was not permitted to read most of the details about it, but that there was painfully little information to begin with. There were many different theories on the exact function and power of the physique, with some theorising that it was connected to an entirely different plane of existence while others simply suggested that the physique owner merely beseeched the heavens for safe travel – which both made sense and seemed rather silly to most who heard it – and the only thing that was certain was that it was an effective movement physique that could also sometimes be used to evade devastating attacks in combat.

It was also considered a greater physique, although she personally considered it to be on a higher level than a physique that could only be used for restraining others or entertaining oneself in the case that their body was insufficient.

Wei Yi flipped the page again, landing on the description of Shaper’s Grasp.

‘This might be useful for more than modifying equipment, actually. It should have the ability to shape all matter, albeit to a lesser extent, so it could be used to further improve the effects of my physique cultivation once I am able to do so,’ she thought, willing a few of the books from her mental domain to appear beside her, ‘There aren’t many examples of this happening in the Planar Continents, but from what I can do from within here, it does appear to allow for this.’

Before she could flip over to the next physique in the list, she felt her mind finally expand into her body and occupy it fully.

The moment that she could, she opened her eyes and found that she was looking up at a familiar ceiling, one that belonged to Ya’s residence. She was placed on a large, king-size bed within her own Crimson Robes, although there were several bandages wrapped around the original location of the most severe wounds that had now healed.

For some reason, Sharen e Mo lay beneath her right hand and literally nowhere else in the room, while the rest of her things remained untouched. At the moment, there was no one other than her in the room, suggesting that they either did not expect her to awake this quickly or wanted to give her some time on her own, perhaps to check her own injuries and use her own methods of healing them rather than the hatred avatars attempting to utilise their own lacking knowledge of the human body.

This was probably for the best, as it would give them the impression that she had suffered some genuine harm during the battle, rather than being bitten by some insignificant insects.

‘The moment that I stopped holding back the regeneration of my body and clothes, they recovered in the matter of minutes, so if they had taken a look at me then, instead of using bandages, they would have had a few questions for me when I woke up,’ she thought, removing the unnecessary strips of fabric from her body, ‘It also seems that my physique has broken through to the fourth stage while I slept, though my killing intent and spiritual will remain as they were before the battle. Unless I figure out some way of adapting the True Ascendant ability of absorbing energy to the other types of energy at my disposal, my physique may push far ahead of them very soon.’

After she checked her body with both her spiritual perception and hands to make sure that none of the scars had bypassed the natural regenerative properties of the Greater Shape realm, she corrected her clothing and placed the greatsword on her back before approaching the door.

Before reaching out to open it, she felt something with her spiritual perception and paused.

“Min Lian, is there a need to be guarding my door?”

“Master, you suffered great harm while I stood back, contrary to what I was obligated to do as the Seventh Claw. If any further threats appeared, I had to protect you from them,” the assassin appeared beside the door, kneeling before her with her head lowered, “I made sure to prevent any attempts at stealing your equipment, as well.”

“Do I have you to thank for this still being in my hand?” Wei Yi asked, pointing to Sharen e Mo.

“No, Master. I don’t recall a single one of the avatars attempting to touch the weapon in the first place.”

“Is that so? Hm. I trust that you did not act like this in front of the others?”

“I would never be so foolish.”

“In that case, get back to your place amongst the hatred avatars and prepare to argue against anyone that believes that leaving Automaton Point is a bad idea.”

“On that topic, Master, I wish to inform you that it might be easier than you had originally expected. With the collapse of the entire cave ceiling, their location is now significantly easier to find from the surface, meaning that it is also far less safe. As such, they have absolutely no objects to leaving the moment that you are ready to guide them to Beast’s Rest,” explained Min Lian, “I cannot be sure that a repeat of the last attempt on your life won’t occur, but I will be more careful in detecting poisons in the future.”

Wei Yi shrugged, “There’s no particular need for that, though I won’t object.”

“Thank you, Master. I shall do as you commanded earlier.”

With that, the assassin quickly vanished, though it was still possible to track her movements if Wei Yi was to focus on the task. Even then, she was easily one of the fastest people she had met so far below the fourth realm of cultivation, excluding herself and those that were not bound by the world around them.

After giving her a little time to get to her place, Wei Yi left the room and descended to the first floor of the building, where she found a rather dismal sight outside of the windows.

In place of a city bustling with as much life as could be contained within the dead inhabitants of the prison realm was now a large pile of rock lit only by the bright crimson of the storm cloud-filled sky, with those that did dare to venture into the area doing so only for their most prised possessions, after which they quickly retreated. Based on their wariness, it seemed that there was a certain danger associated with traversing these ruins, perhaps due to some instability of the cave after it had been carved into by weapon and technique alike.

This was unfortunate – the fourth quarter of Automaton Point was rather pleasing to the eye, in her opinion, at least when compared to the rest of the prison realm – but she would have had to endure far more damage to have a chance of keeping their city in one piece.

As the hatred avatars didn’t know that there was any chance of that happening, she wouldn’t tell them.

Currently, Ya, Min Lian and a few others were gathered in a room at the back of the building, so she figured that was where they were expecting her to be.

They were sitting within the replica of a kitchen, which was split into two sections, one of which contained a counter with several cabinets attached to the wall while the other contained a large table. The hatred avatars sat around it on various chairs, with one empty and one occupied one clearly having been constructed on short notice. When she entered the room, Min Lian glanced back at her and switched to one of the different chairs without any comment as to allow her Master the most comfortable seat.

“Wei Yi, you have awakened,” Ya said, pointing towards the newly emptied chair, “From what I recall, humans benefit from rest after withstanding significant injury or exhaustion, so we have gathered here.”

“That is indeed the case, though cultivators benefit from the ability to use their cultivated energy to make up for anything, be it energy, food, water, or whatever else you could come up with,” she replied, sitting down on the offered seat and noting that it was quite warm, “Besides, I’m probably in a better state than you imagine. Are you still intending to follow me towards Beast’s Rest?”

They nodded, “It appears to be the best option. You might have seen the damage outside…”

“I was intending to cause a small collapse, localised on me and the invading forces, but it turned out a little bigger than expected.”

“The ceiling of this particular cave was rather thin, so it isn’t surprising that something with that degree of power could bring it down,” Ya shrugged, “Thus, we might as well leave. Before that, however, I have to bring up our matter once more…”

“I could do it now, or later, when I’ve had the time to recover my energy. The latter would be more likely to succeed.”

“In that case, I expect you to remember it once we arrive to the human settlement. Are you able to guide us there?”

“Naturally. However, if you don’t mind, I do have a slightly different idea that I would like to propose to all of you. Feel free to tell me if you think it sounds stupid or unreasonable,” she said, and when no-one immediately opposed her, she continued, “As you know, these people have come from the Great Bone Lake, a settlement with an enormous number of physique cultivators. They are led by a number of warlords, one of whom appears to have caused this invasion. One of the best ways to end this kind of issue, in my mind, is to strike at their core. If the Great Bone Lake can be controlled by Beast’s Rest, you can rest peacefully, without worrying about future invasions.”

“Are… you proposing that we invade the Great Bone Lake?”

“Invade it? No, not at all. I just think that it could do with some new leadership. They seem the type to respond well to duels, so I could challenge all of the warlords at once, prove my strength, then do with it as I see fit.”

“…” for a second, Ya was unable to reply while the other speakers didn’t even know what they were discussing. When they did finally answer, they said, “Does the leader of Beast’s Rest really allow you to do these kinds of things? This seems extremely unreasonable, even if you are capable of one of their army leaders. The warlords are meant to have incredibly power!”

“Yeah, I know. I fought one once. He was surprisingly weak, actually, and I tend to fear many weaker opponents more than one strong one, except for when those stronger opponents are members of the Great Families…” Wei Yi paused, “Anyway, my plan is entirely viable, so long as you assist me.”

“This seems like an unnecessary act… but we could offer some support.”

“Perfect! In that case, gather all of the hatred avatars, as well as the, eh… what do you lot call the amalgam automatons?”

“We did not bother with naming them. They are simply automatons, without any mind.”

“Then, amalgam automatons will do. Gather them and we will set out to the Great Bone Lake. In order to get the most out of all of them, here is what you need to do…”

 

Several days later, a tidal wave of crimson rolled through the wastes of the prison realm.

Countless insectoid creatures charged across the crimson, every tenth or so being ridden by a humanoid figure that blended with them due to their flesh, blood and skin colours matching. There were only a few that stood out amidst the crowd, and Wei Yi, Min Lian and the hatred avatars that the cosmic cultivator had healed earlier.

Ya remained in their current form, as she had convinced them to wait even longer, mostly to prevent them from attempting to flee once her usefulness expired. If they attempted to do something of the sort once the Great Bone Lake was within her grasp, she would easily be able to deal with them.

Thus, as they slowly neared the settlement, all of the speakers, old and new, went over the plan that they had been given. It was an extremely basic one, with only a few instructions, but when they realised exactly how large the Great Bone Lake was, how many people could fit inside of it, and how intensely warped the flow of killing intent was within it, they and the avatars under them began to reassess the situation and take it significantly more seriously.

After all, they had witnessed what a small group of physique cultivators could do.

Wei Yi, who was riding on the least unpleasant amalgam automaton that she could find, turned towards the small group of Automaton Point speakers on her side and said, “Remember to act in the exact way that I described, and to control your resonance in a very specific manner, or else you lot will fuck all of this up. Also, if any of you get afraid and try to run off, I will personally make sure that I resurrect as a hatred automaton that can only think of chasing the cowards down and eating them, slowly and painfully.”

“You should reconsider and become an avatar instead, or else we could simply work together to control you,” stated Ya, mostly as a joke.

She replied in a similar manner, “If I become an avatar, I would have the chance of doing something more important, which would mean that you lot do not need to fear my undead wrath. I can’t allow for something like that, can I?”

“No… Did you not say that physique cultivators ignore killing intent?”

“That isn’t the case. They simply aren’t affected by the mental effects of it. However, when all of you are combined to generate a single field of killing intent, they will be able to tell that it differs from their own settlement, and then realise that the forces outside are powerful, even if they can’t understand exactly why.”

“Wei Yi,” Min Lian entered the conversation, pretending to have casually thought of something, “I appear to have regained some of my basic killing intent abilities since you healed me. If I influence the resonance, will that be detrimental to your plan?”

“What sorts of things can you do? If you have a method of enhancing it, then sure, go ahead.”

“My cultivation technique, from my human days, allows me to slightly strengthen stagnant energy with repeated heart-like beats, although it will take roughly four minutes for the effect to become significant enough for non-killing intent cultivators to be able to observe it,” she explained as if she hadn’t already shared the entire technique manual with Wei Yi earlier, “I could apply this to the resonance before it is fully expressed, if that benefits you.”

Similarly, Wei Yi pretended to give it some thought before nodding, “Sure, that would work. They might not immediately realise that we’re here, so delay the effects of resonance.”

Min Lian nodded, causing Ya to return into the conversation, “We’re nearing the Lake. Will you-”

“Yes,” she said, ‘It’s time to conquer another city.’