When she finally emerged into the Planar Continents, she looked outright miserable. She looked tired, her eyes were dim, but at the very least her skin and body appeared to have been made a minute ago, since they had constantly been refined by failed talisman-like effects for several hours until it pushed her into the fifth stage, bringing only a single physique ability into the next stage, although it was most certainly a good one.

The Titanic Demolisher ability, which she had considered using to great effect in a short while as it would function well alongside her current phoenix aesthetic, rose to the Vibrant Titanic Demolisher stage and allowed her to form a significantly denser gigantic shadow behind herself.

Other than that, she slightly regretted getting so lost in her thoughts within the Realm of Potential, as all of the pain that had accumulated from the constant burning and rebuilding of her body struck her the moment she left, as the process ceased a moment after she regained the feeling within her body, whereas her previous cultivation had ended before she could leave the Realm of Potential. It wasn’t that significant in comparison to her many previous experiences, but it was lingering and pervasive, with every single part of her body suffering – and benefitting, although that was rather difficult to feel at the moment.

To feel certain kinds of pain in certain kinds of places was hardly the most pleasant she had ever felt, and did make her question certain things about human physiology, but it did prove not only that her Absolute path was successful, but that it could be brought forward to the ninth realm, so long as she was able to continue improving it for such a small quantity of points.

So long as she improved the Absolute Dao directly, the fact that the Absolute Rupture technique was rather limited in terms of what it can reach will be significantly less important and significant.

Before that, however, she needed to perform an operation within the best conditions possible, and that meant that she would not be able to do this within the prison realm due to the separation between it and the Planar Continents, which turned out to have some relevance.

From what she was able to determine, there were two forms of bloodlines: one contained the echo of some particular past figure and relied entirely on it to provide power and direction for the cultivator’s growth through the blood. It was an effective method for someone weaker to gain great strength, but it would affect their path significantly and had the terrible limitation of requiring a connection to that person from the past that was provided by the world, and would fade significantly over a brief period of time the moment that the connection was broken.

The other type was more generic, relating to a particular type of entity or lineage that would persist regardless of one’s position in the universe, and would force one’s development far less while still providing as many, if not more, benefits overall. This seemed to be the type that she possessed, with all three of her primary bloodlines not being reliant on any specific entity – save for the cosmic cloud that might be bound to her, but, since she is the only one to own it, it did not appear to matter which world she was in at any time – but just to be safe, she wanted to give her bloodlines as much room to resonate and grow as possible.

In order to guarantee this, she decided to approach this with the most preparation and prudence possible, which involved the setting of four sets of arrays and inscriptions around her, all of a varying size, that mimicked the resonance device used by Long Huang but included some modifications that she was able to make after her prolonged stay within the Realm of Potential.

The largest had a radius of ten metres, the smallest had a radius of one, and then there were a few more experimental arrays set on and within the body that attempted to replicate that same effect without the need for constant rotation, as she was sure that it would be rather unpleasant to experience one’s blood trying to flee from the body. Then, she also created a certain circulation pathway for each of her forms of energy, uncertain whether the bloodline would generate any kind of energy of its own but hoping to create as much of it as possible if that would indeed occur.

After that, she also set down a few inscriptions within the ground that might have similar effects, although they were only certain to be effective and beneficial. Their actual effect was to be determined, but they were far more certain not to kill her than the meridian growth technique she had created.

With ten minutes of preparation complete, she sat in the middle of all of these things and focused upon manipulating all of them to achieve her goals, keeping her clothing off just in case the awakening of a bloodline was going to cause some disastrous effects and tear her and her surroundings asunder. Then, she took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and activated all of the arrays and inscriptions around herself.

It could take a lot of time to reach her goal, and she didn’t have much to waste.

Her intention was to return before everyone at the Luo District was awake and going about their day, which meant that she had about an hour to complete all of this and get back through the border. Technically, she had no obligation to be there at that particular time, but she had no task that she could conveniently complete out there, and had no other normal reason to be out of the district at this time, the action of leaving the district for no reason might be seen as odd and unusual, prompting greater attention on her and the need to be even more careful.

Whether this was a bout of paranoia or a genuine concern, she would rather not need to figure it out. Fortunately, she expected the process to take no longer than forty minutes, so she had a high chance of success.

With an infusion of her will, the many arrays and inscriptions around her began to function, whether by sitting still or rotating around her.

If an outsider was to observe this, they might assume that she had changed little about the principles that she had been attempting to study and replicate, but they would be greatly mistaken for one simple reason – Wei Yi hoped that she had been able to remove the necessity for the needle being involved within the process, thus permitting her to actively cultivate without needing to extract and then reabsorb her blood in some way.

That could have technically worked, so long as the effects upon her blood would remain for long enough and not be rejected by her body, but the goal was to create something that could be maintained within the body to empower her blood at any time. The rotating arrays around her were only for the initial awakening process, and hopefully wouldn’t be required unless she wanted to rush into strengthening her bloodline resonance at any one point, in which case she could set up more of this kind of array structures to assist whatever technique she is able to extract from them.

For now, her energy was focused onto her blood both from within and without, slowly causing her every vein to tremble as it grew hotter with every breath, although not in the way that a flame might heat something held near to it, as that would be negated by her Yin-Yang Ascendant physique. Instead, it felt like the raw energy within her blood was growing, innately conflicting with the flesh around it.

Wei Yi had been able to claim that she was mostly impervious to pain and discomfort for quite some time, but it couldn’t be more true at the moment, as much of her body still ached from the effects of Absolute Rupture, even if that was more likely to be a phantom pain since the entirety of her body was effectively brand new. Any unpleasant sensations caused by her own blood trying to destroy her own body were easily subdued by everything else she currently felt, making it seem more like a casual stab from a needle or two… or a couple thousand, although that would be getting even further off topic than her mind already was.

Some time passed, during which she had continued to focus intently on ensuring that her blood was able to circulate properly while ensuring that every drop was equally exposed to the resonating energy.

If she showed only a small quantity of her blood to the appropriate level of resonance, it could cause a number of problems, from simply decreasing the amount of power that she could access from it to entirely preventing the development and creating some lingering issues within her body, although that did not seem to be something that couldn’t be resolved by another round of Absolute Rupture, perhaps two.

When the sun had shifted in the sky, she finally felt the resonance of her bloodlines. Within herself, her mind, and within the same half-true space that the dantian occupied, she felt three distinct traces of energy, each one separate yet linked. Due to seeing the resonance of her blood previously, she was easily able to recognise them as the blood of the Golden Qilin, the silvery sprites, and the cosmic influence upon herself. As before, the first two were somewhat equally matched, while the third stood out amongst them, but they were now standing or floating apart from one another without any clear interaction, as if they were presenting themselves to her.

A vague mirage formed from and within each cloud of energy, but the images differed somewhat. The Golden Qilin was taller and prouder, seemingly posing to look more impressive, while the silver sprites formed into a particular arrangement that was pleasing to the eyes, and it was only the cloud of cosmic energy that didn’t seem to change, although, considering the fact that the stars within were always in motion, she wouldn’t be surprised if it had.

‘Is my own blood presenting a choice to me? If so… why would I ever need to ponder the correct answer. It is obvious,’ Wei Yi affirmed, mentally reaching out towards the cosmic cloud.

The closer she got, the more the other two seemed to glow more brightly, becoming more elaborate and complex, their gazes landing upon her with a judgemental look, as if they were questioning why anyone would ever select another bloodline over their own. For a moment, she wondered whether she was misunderstanding this part of the process, and that perhaps this was her choosing which bloodlines to eliminate, but the cosmic cloud was not growing weaker when her will approached, and just remained resolute and constant.

With no clear and concrete evidence to base her decision on, she had to go with her intuition.

As her mind came into contact with the cosmic cloud, she felt nothing in particular except for greater clarity. The two other bloodline manifestations seemed to glare at her for a moment, but when she looked back at her they suddenly drew back, looking small as if facing some great threat that they couldn’t possibly defeat.

The cloud of cosmic energy burst and surged behind her, seemingly vanishing into the void of this domain.

She looked down upon herself, finding her body to exist within this strange space beside reality and the mind, but it was made from the same portal to the starry skies that her energy was, and the cosmic cloud appeared to surround it, expanding slowly but noticeably with every single moment. When she took a step towards them, she saw that it was this combination that the other two bloodlines feared, prompting her to advance further.

Whatever those bloodlines were, no matter what the silver sprites represented, she had no interest in them. They were something of the past, some remnant of an identity that she wished to forget and remove, and only the cosmic light was truly her own, forged and shaped by her journey.

The closer she got to the Golden Qilin and the silver sprites, the weaker they looked, the more they trembled, the less impressive their forms became. From golden and silver monuments to some unknown powers, they changed to little more than phantoms of the past, to useless remnants within her blood. As soon as her expanding cosmic aura finally came into contact with one of the sprites, she saw it melt, rot and crumble at the point of contact, prompting her to lunge forward to grab onto it, the silver instantly dissolving into a sliver of light that merged with the nearest galaxy within the cosmic aura, while the other two resonances looked even weaker.

Since one of the sprites was gone, the others seemed even weaker, causing her eyes to glisten as she rushed forward, enveloping the rest of them with the cosmic cloud of bloodline resonance, allowing her to quickly shift her attention to the Golden Qilin, which seemed to be covering in an invisible corner at her approach.

At this point, the cosmic cloud was nearly five times as large as she was, and thus she couldn’t come into physical contact with it before the erosion took place, seemingly being even more powerful now that the energy of the silver sprites had formed into a small constellation amidst the many stars and galaxies that could be seen through and within the cloud of her bloodline resonance, looking far more pathetic than they ever were on the outside.

Within moments, the Qilin melted into naught but a wisp of golden energy, merging into the same constellation as the silver sprites except the one star that it produced was brighter and larger than the rest, effectively possessing the same quantity of energy as all of the sprites combined.

As it disappeared from the domain, so did her consciousness begin to disappear from it, the very domain seeming to slip away as if it had never been there. For a moment, she tried to hold on, but the way in which the other two bloodlines crumbled suggested that this space, whatever and wherever it was, was composed in part of the three separate resonances. With two gone, and the cosmic cloud sinking fully into her astral mental form, there was nothing more to keep this particular space stable, and thus it returned to its origin.

For this reason, she let it go, and watched darkness fill her sight.

 

On the outer border of the Luo District, between the first and second layers of talismans, two guards stood beside one another and looked into the distance, one maintaining the semblance of a proper posture while the other was lazily standing by and chewing on some herbs.

“A quiet day, isn’t it?”

“Aye.”

“I’d be cursed by the Great Worm, but I would actually want to have to deal with some intruders.”

The other guard nodded, although it did not stop him from continuing to munch upon his herbs, “Aye.”

“I hear that quite a few kids from the Luo family are currently nearing the peak of their realms and will soon be breaking through. Imagine if we came across one of them and happened to borrow some of their stuff while they weren’t paying attention. By the gracious sands, we’d get away with it, and then, a whole lot of free resources are in our hands!”

“Aye.”

“Do you know any other words?”

“Aye.”

“Fuck you, man. Here I am, trying to lighten things up, and you-”

All of a sudden, everything around them seemed to dim, save for a point far in front of them, where an impossibly bright violet light surged through the trees and hills.

It quickly mixed with all kinds of astral colours, illuminating the forest in a way that seemed impossible even for a fallen star. The colour of its radiance was so intense that it singlehandedly looked to put out all of the light within the district, although all those that observed it knew deep down that this was merely an illusion.

 

“That’s right, the report stated that they resembled silver particles orbiting around an invisible point.”

“I see. Take your reward and go, before someone realises you are absent from your position,” a pouch filled with coin was passed from one to the other, the giver remaining in place for some time after the other left.

That person then turned to the outer portion of the district, staring into the beyond with little obvious purpose. They were about to go when they saw a light of immense brightness, colour and volume deafen the world around it, seemingly cutting through the world itself to shine into their eyes despite everything between it and them.

It was filled with planar violet at first, but the longer they looked upon it, the more shades emerged. Solar orange and yellow, star-like gold and silver, nebula crimson and more shone together and yet separately, forming an entirely unique image to their eyes, as if they looked into a world wholly unique from this one, with a different sky and different void, and they were fascinated. For a moment, their mind was blank, for they could not focus on anything other than the astral glow.

They were only broken out of their reverie by the sudden tremble of the ground, and a realisation that this was no mere light, but the release of force.

An immense wave of energy surged out from the origin of this glow, crushing trees and flattening grass and extinguishing any life within the nearest kilometre, cracking ground and shaking the stability of caves. It reached all the way up into the clouds, throwing them asunder and clearing a wide-open circle within the orange sky, entirely overpowering the rising sun with its splendour.

“No, not overpowering… It even has that light within itself, and yet it does not stand out at all…”

They were astonished, to the point that they were unable to find a single thing that they believed to be more vibrant, despite everything that was certainly within their memory.

For a moment, they weren’t sure whether to be ashamed or proud of this discovery, but the answer soon became clear. Their position and identity simply did not allow for them to view anything but a single image in their past as anything but the most vibrant and impressive sight.

“Still, this is the closest anything has come…”

 

Every tree within a few dozen metres was obliterated outright, melting into the cosmic light and never reappearing, but those further away were only corroded partially, with the rest of their bark and roots being torn out of the ground and throw away without any possibility of resistance. Certain smaller stones – the kind that were only a few hundred tonnes in weight – were also consumed and sundered, wrenched from the ground and throw far, far away.

From the origin point of the light, countless fissures in the ground spread out, some small while others were absolutely enormous, sufficient for a house or two to fall into them with ease.

Some were dark, partially lit only by the cosmic flare of light, while others actively surged with crimson light from some underground veins of earth flame. This great brightness mixed with the cosmic violet, but even the glow of a dozen earth fire veins could not overpower the birth of a new galaxy.

 

The moment that Wei Yi regained her sight, she realised that she was sitting at the only safe spot within fifty metres, surrounded by a dense mist of light that was only now beginning to fade, prompting her to immediately disappear as quickly as she possibly could. She was not immediately able to determine exactly what had happened, nor what the benefit she had earned from the process was, but none of that was as significant as ensuring that the entirety of the Planar Continents, or at the very least the entirety of the Luo District, didn’t have the chance to converge upon her and learn her secrets.

Only once she was far away, fully dressed, and any trace of that violet light was removed from her was she able to confidently relax and look upon herself and her last meridian network.

At first, she did not see a thing, but she knew that nothing that ridiculously destructive would occur if she didn’t succeed in doing something and kept staring at the network waiting to see anything of use. After a while, once enough time had passed for her to have looked away countless times if she hadn’t been so sure, she finally saw it.

Within that last network which had gone unoccupied since she began this path was a thin strand of light that stretched all the way through the meridians, made up of a cosmic glow with a red and gold tint, reminiscent of both her blood and cosmic energy.

Upon further inspection, she realised that there were actually two separate strands that were simply entwined with one another, but both were so thin that they barely looked thick enough to hold on even when they were together. Looking even further in, incredibly thin yet lengthy strands that resembled capillaries extended from many points on the primary two lengths of bloodline power, moving rapidly to enter and recede from any meridians by the extremities, withdrawing into the primary lengths when they were not needed at an immense speed, even by the standards of everything that she had seen.

She tried to analyse this based on what little she understood about the idea of bloodline cultivation, and determined that this would likely correspond to the second stage of the first realm, which, for now, she named Blood Trace, as it reflected her blood and the bloodline at once, but only the trace of the full potential within them.

With that name, her knowledge of the other paths, and some guesswork, she began to lay out the other realms as well. If the first realm traced the past and potential, then the second would need to awaken or act upon them in some way, thus receiving the name of Echo Awakening, and which point she presumed that some notable part of the bloodline would be made manifest within the cultivator, although she was not certain what such a thing would be for her, nor whether this would be achieved with nine strands of Blood Trace or some greater number. All she could be absolutely certain of was that all four other cultivation paths had nine stages and should have nine realms, so this should function according to the same rules.

After that, she presumed that some major trait could be extracted from the bloodline and imposed upon a cultivator, and hence gave it the name of Trait Acquisition. Whether this would be a single trait per stage, or one per realm, was another thing that she couldn’t guess with ease.

Going beyond the fourth realm in terms of guesses and estimations was not something that she was in any way confident with, so she limited herself to that, naming it the Semblance Extraction level due to her presumption that much like the other four forms of cultivation, the fourth realm was bound to possess a unique trait, which, in the case of blood and bloodlines, would likely be the ability to invoke a greater portion of the bloodline’s secrets at once, manifesting a kind of second form.

‘I can make some guesses of what this would look like for a draconic or wolven bloodline, but I am not so certain when it comes to my own. I have no second form, save for the killing will state, so there isn’t really much that could manifest in the fourth realm, nor in the third and second, unless I will gain cosmic eyes or nails or something of that sort…’ she frowned, glancing at her nails and concluding that she could easily do without such an unnecessary change, even if it brought increased strength and endurance to them, ‘I am a little worried about what any breakthrough will look like. If this wasn’t a one-off thing, my path will be littered with horribly fissured and destroyed landscapes.’

Such a thing was not likely, given quite how much energy was released from her body at this time, but it was not impossible for such phenomena to recur upon crossing realms.

To attempt another breakthrough any time soon and not make appropriate preparations would be rather remiss of her, both due to the attention that it has already caused and since she did want some semblance of the Planar Continents to remain whenever she managed to defeat the Greats and reform Yi City.

‘Now, what exactly does my bloodline power do? I do not seem to be able to project it outside of the body,’ she tested the possibility and found that she was indeed correct, ‘Then what exactly does any of this stuff do? Right, I should first confirm that nothing about my body has changed, shouldn’t I?’

She released some spiritual perception outside of her body, and immediately noticed an oddity. Nothing about the very nature of the energy had changed, not so far as she was able to tell, but the range and power of her spiritual perception had risen notably, albeit not immensely. It was roughly two tenths stronger than before, and it could reach two tenths further than before, which she immediately noted that it coordinated with the number of stages achieved by her bloodline.

Finding it odd that a bloodline would enhance her spiritual perception of all things, she checked out her other forms of energy and realised that it had not done just that – all four of her other forms of power had grown by the exact same amount, but without any changes in her actual cultivation.

This finding was not just phenomenal, but absolutely fantastic. It was, perhaps, one of the greatest things that she had ever uncovered without expecting to, as such a skill was absolutely invaluable no matter how difficult it would be to raise its stage and realm. Even if each stage only increased her power by the same amount from the first to the ninth realms, that would still be a multiplier of nine to her strength in every regard. Combining that with the perfected realms, the amplification of technique stages, her physique and everything else in her possession, she would be impossibly more powerful than any cultivator of the same realm even if she had the worst cultivation technique imaginable, which she naturally did not.

In a word, this was exactly what she needed. With all nine realms, she would, in theory, possess a similar boost to her overall prowess as that of the Greats and their multiple anchors, although it wasn’t just that simple boost that made them terrifying. With that boost and the combined might of all of her forms of cultivation, if she wasn’t able to defeat any one third generation Great Family member in a one-on-one encounter, nobody would.

‘Still, there might be more to this, and that means that I need to continue investigating. First off, I forgot to actually take a look at myself…’