When the woman spoke, she appeared entirely calm, and yet Wei Yi found her entire mind in an even more precarious position than when a pair of immensely powerful energies besieged it. Perhaps if it had just been one new fact, or one previous assumption proven wrong, she would have understood it easily, and yet, when so many things came together, she found herself to be unable to accept it all without at least one simple confirmation.

Unfortunately, she could not decide which one of her numerous questions was to be asked first.

“Thou art aware of my son, art thou not?”

“H-How much are you… eh… Were those memories yours?”

“Hm? Memories… Ah, thou hath witnessed my past whilst I slept, unable to control the Kong Prison Realm lest I reveal myself to the Greats,” Yi Shi Ming said, “If thou hath seen something unseemly, I would bid thee forget it, if thou can. I hath little pride in myself, but as we will likely spend some time together, I would prefer thee to have a pleasant image of me in thine mind.”

“Sorry, Kong Prison Realm? I… I think I need to learn far, far more than I currently know…” Wei Yi said, frowning, “Wait, you were sleeping here for some time, and you’ve cut space… Are you-”

“I am not truly myself. In life, although my cultivation was certainly not poor, my ability and talent could never compare to Ah Shi Meng, and so, when this place was created, as I was also running out of my lifespan, my son created a new consciousness for the spatial realm, imbued it with my mind and one of his techniques, and thus allowed me to advance directly into the Oblivion Halo, the seventh realm,” she explained, although her gloomy expression deepened almost immediately, “It is unfortunate that I will not meet him again.”

Wei Yi swiftly stored all of this information into the newly rebuilt Ascendant’s Library, but then she paused on the last thing that the Master of Yi City’s mother had said. If she had been put into this prison realm and then forced to sleep, when exactly would she had the opportunity to learn of his demise?

When she raised this question to Yi Shi Ming, she replied with getting closer to her and kneeling beside her, “Thou hath the same uniqueness as he did, as he said one would…”

“The mysterious characters belonged to the Master of Yi City? And… you can see them?”

“No, I cannot perceive the characters themselves – which my child called the Truth of the Universe, if it interests thee – but he had taught me how to notice the effect that they have upon one such as thyself. If, in the future, thou find others who can sense thine characters, then thou hath met with those that knew my son. They art likely to be thine friends, as few to none of his enemies knew of their existence,” the woman said, “Art thou of the Yi family?”

“Yes…”

“But thou named thyself by a different name. I assume that the family my son created did not treat thee fairly?”

“They calmly stood by as two of the Greats burnt half of the Yi District, killed some of their own and scared away some of the most powerful and capable masters of the great arts. I will destroy the Greats, or die trying, and perhaps do the same to a family that just stands by and allows one of their own to perish, especially after giving them no opportunity to ever advance from their position despite the rapid rate of advancement and the talent I had in the great arts,” Wei Yi recalled, idly raising her hand and conjuring a wisp of cosmic energy only seconds before she realised what she was doing – only to find that the planar energy did not immediately dissipate, and was instead building within her dantian, “Wait, is the planar energy conversion also under your control?”

“Indeed. It hath long served its purpose, and so I shalt allow thee and the prison realm to practise planar energy once more, if that suits thine purposes.”

“Once again, you’re speaking of accommodating me… I think that I would benefit from an explanation.”

“Perhaps thou woulds’t. Even though thou hath seen the past with thine own eyes, I would suggest that it would be wise for me to present it all to thee from the beginning, as the memories were likely greatly limited and fractured due to my own focuses and cares, although I shan’t pry if thou woulds’t rather not share,” Yi Shi Ming said, sitting down in front of her while a large sphere of spatial power sealed them inside of it safely, “Oh, and if thou hath not yet understood, thine form is temporary.”

She said nothing more on that topic, but it was somehow sufficient for Wei Yi to realise that the plentiful mixture of physique energy and killing will within her flesh could indeed be controlled by her, and so she quickly revoked it and witnessed as the dark bone and odd colours on her skin retreated into her own physique, her crimson and white transforming into a similar tone of tanned skin that she had grown used to, except for that shade becoming slightly lighter than before due to the influence of the additional yin from the changes in her physique.

Curiously enough, all of her new and unusual features, including claws, fangs, and the crimson shade in her left eye, as well as the pale colour in her right eye, also vanished, despite being partially composed of her actual bones and flesh, changing back without a hint of the previous oddities.

Even the extreme yin and yang within those two halves of her body returned to normality, being split equally among her body, although the greater comfort in handling yin within her left side and yang within her right remained, likely due to familiarity over anything else. Even before the awakening of the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique, she had already been using killing intent with one hand and spiritual will with the other, so it made sense.

“If you are aware, could you tell me what realm I am in? I appear to be struggling with understanding it on my own, still…”

“Thine planar cultivation is still in the third realm – I had been aware of thine presence since your breakthroughs began, as that was the time that thine spiritual perception had expanded and thine energy pull also grew, freeing me sufficiently from the world to allow me to understand thine cultivation – whereas thine spiritual will and killing intent hath both ascended to the fifth realm, although I lack sufficient understanding of them to provide any kind of explanation for thee,” Yi Shi Ming explained, “I suspect that thou hath a grasp on such things already. Finally, thine physique, something that evaded my child, hath reached one realm higher than before.”

“At the very least I have the names for the first realms in the killing intent and spiritual will paths, but due to the changes to these two energies, I have renamed both to killing will and now need to decide on a new series of realms… My naming sense is like a deserted desert by now… Alright, could you tell me if this sounds incredibly stupid please…”

“I shall do so, if thee wish.”

“Based on the realms of killing intent and spiritual will, and how both begin with collecting energy, it would make sense for the first realm of killing will to be called Combined Pools, as the two forms of energy gather together. Then, presuming that the structures of both also exist, United Mind, which could be followed by Clarified Energies, Twin Armaments,” Wei Yi paused to condense a blade of spiritual will in one hand and killing intent in the other, finding that they came to her extremely naturally, entirely unlike the Frayed Blade that she had previously used for an energy-based weapon, “and since the fifth realms of both forms of cultivation currently culminate in a physical effect, Physical Amplification would also fit.”

“There is a logic to these names. It seems that despite my son’s beliefs, killing intent doth not immediately lead to mindlessness,” Yi Shi Ming smiled for a moment, though her gloom quickly returned.

“Actually, I think that the key to killing intent, as well as anger, is that so long as it has a proper direction, and someone with sufficient will to control it, it will only empower…” as she replied, her killing intent pooled around her, “And as you might have gathered from my earlier commentary, all of that is directed at the Greats. I don’t know what your opinion on them or my mission for vengeance is, nor what you think of me attempting to reconstruct Yi City without their influence, but I will not be kept from this.”

“Worry not, child. I was the one to encourage my son to be more stringent and harsh in his actions, for he… well, we shall speak about that, won’t we? However, I shall keep an eye on thee, if thine will deteriorates. I woulds’t hate thee to lose thine mind after thou hath found thyself with the Truth of the Universe…”

“Right…” Wei Yi focused and allowed her crimson hatred to return to her body, “Please, begin.”

 

Fifty-four years before the founding of Yi City, a child was born to Yi Shi Ming and Kong Lang Meng despite certain protests from the Kong Clan – and it was a clan at the time, for the name and idea of families living in particular districts had not yet come into existence – as Yi Shi Ming was not only an insignificant woman, but she had no particular talents apart from having caught the eyes of Kong Lang Meng. Regardless of their opposition, Kong Lang Meng used his raw might as the Clan Leader to force his decision, although that did not come without a cost.

He had to force Yi Shi Ming away, and when he did so, the others realised that he did not care about the child, only the mother. Thus, the clan decided that the best method of dealing with their frustrations would be to target the child.

That was not difficult in the slightest. With their abilities, training their children to overpower the young Kong Shi Meng and then stepping in to assist them if they still failed was incredibly easy for them, and so, one by one, they investigated how far they could push him, his mother and their Clan Leader, which was what had caused Yi Shi Ming to bring him to the Ancestral Library.

According to her, the only reason that she believed putting even more pressure onto her son was a good idea was that she had observed that the little Kong Shi Meng was always not only incredibly mature for his age, despite his rather poor attempts to hide that, and had an extreme interest in various planar techniques that he was then able to practise and learn with far greater speed than any other child, with occasional changes being made to them.

Back then, she had no clue whether this was something to do with a natural talent, or some ability that he did not share with her, but that did not matter. All she wanted was to ensure his safety.

“Can you trust me?” he had said, reaching for the book that she had believed to not be as helpful as many of the alternatives in the library. And yet, this once, he did not even attempt to hide the unusual maturity, stating with absolute certainty that these techniques would be the things that he needs to overpower those who constantly attacked him.

She simply couldn’t disagree with him then, but she made sure to keep watch.

 

“That was when he had performed a miracle…”

“When I viewed that memory, I recall seeing a strange grey shape reflected in Kong Shi Meng’s eyes even while you saw nothing… By the way, in every single memory, were you so focused on him that your entire field of awareness surrounded only him?” Wei Yi asked.

“Was that was thee saw… Yes, I cared not for my own safety, nor for my husband, for he hath shown that his care for me was only due to my beauty, and that any emotional attraction he had faded long ago, and wished only for my child to succeed in the places where I had failed… As for the rectangle thou hath seen, I am not certain what thou speak of, but it could be related to this,” Yi Shi Ming closed her hand for a moment and opened it, showing her a small shard of dark material, “Thou might be familiar with this, perhaps.”

“This is… Fuck, you’ve got a piece of the chara- I mean, the Truth of the Universe? Eh… actually, what will this do for me? Enhance my techniques?”

“Not exactly. I won’t get too ahead of myself, but the Truth of the Universe is composed of three primary segments, according to my child’s explanations. Thou hath one, he woulds’t be dealing with another, and this is the third. As for its purpose, thou art about to hear it,” she said, giving the small shard to her.

 

Right before her eyes, Kong Shi Meng flipped through the book at an immense speed, not even bothering to read any of the characters written upon it. Immediately after, he looked at something in the air before him, and silently mouthed something.

All of a sudden, the energy around him collapsed into him, flooding his meridians according to the principles of the technique he had selected. In just a few moments, his cultivation of the technique advanced from that of a beginner, someone who had just laid eyes upon it for the first time, to the Full Success stage with incredible ease, despite the fact that it was literally impossible for him to have read through everything in that short amount of time.

Then, after glancing at his mother to confirm that she wasn’t reacting negatively – while trying to do so inconspicuously – he switched onto another book and repeated the process.

Once he went through five different books, his face became slightly pale, and after nine, it was clear that he could not handle many more.

“Shi Meng, art thou practising overlapping techniques?” his mother asked, but then decided to change her question quickly, as she had considered another matter, “Art thou capable of suppressing the ill effects of overlapping cultivation?”

“W-What?” he stuttered, his colour further fading.

“Thou did indeed read the book I gave thee, not just skim over it like this one, did thee?”

“No, I read it properly… I just thought that I’d be able to handle it…”

 

“By the way, Yi Shi Ming, would you like to learn the more recent variation of the language of the Planar Continents? Although your way of speaking does not bother me, I’d imagine that our chats would go far more smoothly in the future if you had a greater grip of the modern changes,” Wei Yi suggested, as the entire description of the past was said in ancient words and terms that forced her to spend an additional instant to understand them, “Furthermore, I’d imagine it would make any conversations you have with others significantly easier than they would be right now.”

“I have no objects to such methodology. If thou coulds’t extend a thread of spiritual will towards me with the knowledge thee wish to grant me, and I shalt understand it at my own pace,” she said, “For now, I shalt continue…”

 

“There… no matter how thee reached the peak of these techniques, thine meridians had not yet fully settled. It had been simple to correct then, but I would suggest that thou doth not repeat this.”

“Sorry for making you worry,” Kong Shi Meng said, a childishly embarrassed expression on his face, “However, now that I have some techniques, I will be able to do… something. Could you please watch over me while I do this? I’m not sure if something like this will happen again.”

“Do not worry, child. I shalt never abandon thee.”

He nodded in acknowledgement and set his eyes on the invisible floating space before him, reaching out with his hand and pressing something that only he could see.

For a few moments, there was nothing, causing some confusion in both Yi Shi Ming and Kong Shi Meng. Several seconds after, however, the planar energy around him twisted once again, collapsing onto him and draining into his meridians and primarily his dantian, filling it up as a pool of pure planar energy condensed within, although no actual improvement seemed to come to his cultivation. Instead, the very quality of the energy stored within greatened, and his very technique advanced.

“Mom, is there anything wrong with me this time?”

“Nothing at all, Ah Shi Meng. If thou art able to persist like this, then thou ought to do so. There is only so much that coulds’t be done against thee if thine power grows like this.”

“Of course. Don’t worry, mom, I won’t let myself get beaten again!” he exclaimed, with even more childish confidence leaking into his speech, causing Yi Shi Ming to relax fully. He might have had a special gift, he might have been able to complete the cultivation of a technique within seconds, but no matter what, she was still her child.

 

“So, were you aware that he was an otherworldly demon?” Wei Yi asked.

“That is thine name for a being from another world? I had some suspicions since the beginning, as his actions all too often seemed like that of an adult, even if his skills in stealth and overall distraction clearly needed work. However, I was, and still am, his mother. I could never stand to watch him suffer, and my child had the ability to prevent such things. If I had an ordinary child instead… I do not believe that he could have ever fared as well,” Yi Shi Ming answered, although traces of reluctance about the topic seeped through her confidence, “Besides, no matter what he had been before, on the path of reincarnation, all are born anew. He simply skipped a step.”

“And took something of incredible power with him… So, what is this shard of the Truth of the Universe? If it offers the same power as he had just displayed, then… what is that power?”

“Calculation. The ability to calculate any technique to its utmost capacity, to surpass all known limits and reach ascendance, if you will. What is already in thine hands is the primary method of storage for the information that is calculated, and what Ah Shi Meng had disappeared to deal with was the third components, the source of power,” she sighed, “That source of power was the most powerful aspect of the Truth of the Universe by far…”

“Did it, perchance, look like this?” Wei Yi raised her right hand and drew out a wisp of spiritual will that she then shaped into the strange azure objects that existed within both of the otherworldly inhabitants of the prison realm.

“I did not see it myself, but I had heard him speak of azure on occasion.”

Seeing as she offered no more information on the characters, Wei Yi took the calculating shard and, much like she had taken in the many planar anchor shards, she now allowed this small object to enter her body and travel to her dantian, though the moment that it was within a certain proximity of it, it suddenly compressed into a particle of light and made the rest of the journey for her, uniting with the characters and joining one of the cracked pieces. She was going to ask Yi Shi Ming about the method of using this new shard, but just as she thought about the grey rectangle, it materialised before her.

Many rows and columns lined the floating shape, making it appear incredibly cluttered with all of the fist, leg, body and mental techniques that she had learnt and used, although without cultivating them. Those appeared as ‘Uninitiated’, whereas the others were somewhere in between Initial Accomplishment and Full Success. A short description followed them.

All of the techniques were currently split across five primary columns, labelled ‘Planar’, ‘Physique’, ‘Spiritual Will’, ‘Killing Intent’ and ‘Crafting’, which somehow earned a category of its own.

“… Hm, I see what thou hath meant. There is something in thine eyes, but hardly sufficient to notice without being aware of it. Thine perception must be at quite a high level,” Yi Shi Ming said, “Art there any aspects that I might be able to enlighten thee about?”

“There are way too many techniques here… Frankly, I’ve already seen what this… thing can produce. The techniques created from it are powerful, structurally sound, but lack the inspiration that once allowed me to display externalised energy whilst in the first realm. For this reason, I do not believe that it is a good idea to rely on it alone,” Wei Yi stated after some consideration, also noticing a value simply labelled ‘Points’ with a zero next to it, “By the way, does this require some kind of resource to utilise?”

“Naturally, now that thou art not in the possession of the source of power, thou must provide thine own. My son had told me that one method was to rely on the energy left over after the destruction of either a planar anchor, or its cultivator. At that point, the energy should come to thee naturally, but thou ought also to be able to perceive it freely.”

‘Energy from breaking anchors… I have exactly forty-seven shards, but-’

Her eyes were naturally drawn to the skeleton lying near her, that had previously looked entirely unassuming. Now, however, she saw a thin azure mist floating around it, and when she reached out with her hand, it was naturally attracted to her, flowing through her hand seamlessly before entering her dantian and being absorbed by the Truth of the Universe, which became slightly more refined after this. Other than that, however, if not for her sudden ability to see the mist, she would have never had a clue that it had passed through her.

“Is anyone else able to perceive this anchor energy, whatever it really is?” she asked, noticing that it took a while for the number to increase.

“Ah Shi Meng had said that only another one like him might have a chance.”

“I see- Wait, forty-seven points?” Wei Yi’s eyes widened when she found that the number had not changed to a one, nor a five or ten, as might have expected depending on the value of a single anchor of an unknown realm, but instead a very precise number that just happened to match with the number of shards that she had acquired, “Did… this man have that many anchors?”

“Him? I was not awake during his death, but I believe him to be a member of the Great Families. There is a certain aura to her that is absent from all others.”

“One of them did make it into the prison realm? I- Hold on. The strange mirage around them that seems to twist space itself and appears to make them immensely powerful. Is that their planar anchors? Are they capable of defeating others through the sheer quantity of anchors? How does that work?” she questioned, to which Yi Shi Ming replied with a dejected expression.

“If thou coulds’t permit me to conclude my recollections of the past, I can share some of my knowledge with thee. As we are now, our conversation will never reach a zenith at which you could depart to thine home.”

“… Right… Carry on…” she said, although she did not stop thinking about this revelation.

 

Several more techniques were developed by little Kong Shi Meng, including a quaint thing he called the Gilded Library, based on some of the many techniques in the Ancestral Library. At the time, it did not have much use, although he appeared to be very attached to it despite simultaneously creating several more powerful and significantly more useful techniques. Yi Shi Ming did not stop him, instead advising him that they should leave soon before anyone was to notice them, and that he could return at any time if he wanted.

That convinced him, and so they left with far more than the library was ever supposed to be able to offer.

The first challenger of the next day was defeated with ease, as they had heard about his performance from the previous fighter and believed that there would be no need to support the child with the parent’s power beside an initial boost.

As they had also wagered a few things in an attempt to prey on Yi Shi Ming without directly harming her, Kong Shi Meng ended up earning several resources for cultivation, which he quickly used to catch up to his peers in terms of cultivation, resulting in an immense boost of strength that none of them could match, with his power rising swiftly with semi-regular visits to the library yielding a great number of improvements to his current techniques and the occasional addition on a new one.

Initially, some mostly ignored the words about his sudden rise, but when he broke through to the Planar Pool realm not only using a pure planar technique, but while also defeating everyone else in his age range of thirteen using it alone, the first serious opponents began to appear. Those that initially tried to push Yi Shi Ming and her son away were obviously displeased with the ease with which the latter was able to develop, and tried to obstruct him time and time again, but most attempts were stopped either by Kong Lang Meng, who was reconsidering his affection for Yi Shi Ming once again, or Kong Shi Meng himself, who continuously rose to challenge the odds and yet emerge victorious almost every time.

After one such victory, he came to his mother with a stern expression, and told her that he knew that the Kong Clan would soon be attacked, and that he wanted to leave before it was. At the same time, he shared with her his fears of his bloodlust slowly rising after each conflict, and how he dreamed of an equal world, where none would need to fight for their right to survive.

Wei Yi would have called the latter incredibly naïve, while the former was an obvious consequence of the otherworldly powers appearing within him at an early age.

Yi Shi Ming was unaware of this information, but she had observed similar things and ultimately agreed with his judgement that it would be a good idea to depart, although she was understandably reluctant to leave a place where she had lived for such a long time.

 

“The only way to ever ensure such a world without sacrificing everyone and everything to the first powerful invader would be to ensure that there was still a protector to watch over someone. A person that could enforce justice so that strength could not return to the forefront,“ Wei Yi commented while her mind pondered on the matter of the excessive list of techniques, “Come to think of it, all of these techniques don’t differ so significantly from one another… They share many principles, as all combat techniques would, and theoretically they even follow the same branch of the Dao, whichever one that may be…”

The mother of the Master of Yi City waited for her to conclude her thoughts, using the silence that ensued to study the stream of knowledge from Wei Yi’s spiritual will thread. Even as the spatial spirit of the Kong Prison Realm, her comprehensive speed lagged far behind Wei Yi’s. It caused the latter to truly understand exactly how valuable her ability to go through information at a rapid pace was.

Still, thoughts like that were brief, and passed by quickly as they were replaced with more relevant ideas regarding her cultivation of skills.

What she had noticed with her blacksmithing was that she often tended to plan out singular actions to perfection, but when placed together, they would suddenly expose a number of flaws. In a way, this was similar to the countless techniques at her disposal – they were magnificent on their own, being able to suppress the spatial warp of a breaking reality, or even momentarily best the Greats, but they lacked a necessary flow.

It could be said that she lacked a single, cohesive Dao to connect her every strike.

‘However, I do not yet have the ability to create forbidden skills, nor understand them perfectly. I do have the concept of sword will, which, in the many tales and legends of the world, is said to allow a combatant to wield the air itself as their weapon, and perform all kinds of strikes… If I use this concept to connect several techniques together, into a single will that can perform whatever its components can, then perhaps…’ she grabbed a series of manuals from the Ascendant’s Library and browsed through them closely, re-reading all of them several times to be sure, ‘Like the Eight Great Changes, I could link everything together, bring their power together and nullify weaknesses… Yes…’

She raised one of her hands and focused on the universal concept of Storm Blade Wreathing, and it’s ability to allow the usage of one technique with a different, unsuitable weapon, the curious Violet Kick copied from Lan Mei Xing that was able to bypass the elements, the Elysian Palm, the bright image of which still remained prominently within her mind, and the Light of Divinity, which still bothered her due to the requirement of calling out its name every single time she used it.

Planar energy flowed to her hand, significantly more stable than the previous times that she had previously been able to use it in combat due to the breakthrough and the addition of the forty-seven anchor shards, and slowly formed the flat edge of a blade above her fingers, much like she had previously been able to use Storm Blade Wreathing alone.

Turning away from Yi Shi Ming, she looked at the floating grey rectangle, where she found the many combat techniques invested into this attempt flickering, with a single button flashing beside them.

‘Unify… If I understood the function of the Truth of the Universe correctly, it can cultivate techniques, and develop them. The latter should only ever be used to complete a technique with an existing image to work with, but when it only uses what I already have, then…’ she decided to give this a go, as she knew that it could not remove anything from her mind even if it tried, meaning that she would lose little of her combat ability if something went wrong.

She willed the press of the button, at which point the many techniques faded from the flat panel while the planar energy above her hand slowly changed from a discordant, fragile state into something unified and whole, merging sunlight and moonlight, crimson and silver, cosmic, pure planar and elemental into something new… Something that she did not expect to ever find in the Planar Continents, no matter who or what attempted to develop something great themselves, for the route that led to this point would never be replicated.

As the many became one, she ignored the name that was slowly appearing within the rectangle and instead spoke her own.

“Ascendant’s Dao.”

 

When Kong Shi Meng turned twenty-four, he first had the idea of unifying the lands, and he began with the small collection of tribes at their new location. He succeeded, and the Yi family was born even as the Kong Clan continued to send pleas for help, unaware that the techniques that they were trying to lure him in with were created by their new prodigal child.

He broke through at a rapid pace for the people of the time, reaching the sixth realm at only the age of fifty-four, at which point Yi City was officially titled and founded.

Yi Shi Ming had seen many challengers attempt to break her son’s project, but none phased him as much as when he had defeated a great number of Primordial Deities and demons and then travelled out of the reaches of the world, to seek something unknown to her.

He returned with a gloomy expression, and the Kong Prison Realm, named after the clan that had shrunk to the point of losing all relevance. Within, an impossible creature of great size and power lay dead on one side of the realm, with planar energy from it being refined into crimson killing intent on that side, and with the rest being transformed into spiritual will. At the same time, he was attempting to understand a method of converting them back into planar energy, so that he could empower the entirety of Yi City and the Planar Continents themselves for an upcoming conflict with something that he had labelled the Hunger of the Beyond, though he never explained himself beyond that.

Unfortunately, he was forced to leave before he could complete this project, leaving his mother to watch over it. There, she had to hide within the slowly growing storm walls as the Greats found it.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, it was said that the heavens have their favourites.

They favour some, gifting riches, knowledge and talent, and curse others, tearing those very things away from them, again, again and again.

Often, it is said that the heavens do this to maintain equilibrium – to maintain balance between the strong and the weak, the righteous and demonic, the virtuous and the sinful, the brilliant and the dull. As one side falls, the other falls with it. Nothing displayed this as well as the tale of the Master of Yi City, who disappeared alongside the same threat that he had warned of.