The Chao District was a large place, and it was surrounded by a wall of sand-like stone that was far sturdier than it looked. Each metre was manned by large and muscular figures, all of whom were eagerly looking at anything that moved in the hope of getting a chance to fight them.

That a group like this somehow managed to remain on the wall for more than a minute before charging down to attack someone was an outright miracle, but that’s beside the point. It was all well-guarded and heavily protected, and inside of the bland and inconspicuous walls were countless defensive inscriptions to guard against anything that either evaded or defeated the men and women that would jump down from the walls the moment that an intruder appeared. Amongst them were quite a few individuals with physiques, although there wasn’t a single physique cultivator in their midst.

It wasn’t much of a surprise, even if the tendency for physiques to play a large part in the matters of the district was well-known across the world, as nobody would accept a first realm physique cultivator onto a guard force made up of third realm fighters at the least, and they might not be able to cultivate at all, even if they find the right materials and resources to do so.

Most of them wore as little as the other inhabitants of the Northern Desert, and there were some that didn’t even bother to cover themselves, perhaps thinking that it didn’t really matter, or wanting to ensure that their skin was equally tanned in all places. Those that Wei Yi did see succeeded in that.

The minority wielded weapons, and out of those that did, most women had a short dagger or blade by their side, while most of the men had large and heavy bows with arrows that didn’t quite match the standard of Yi Fenwu’s greatbow and spear-like arrows. Still, they were notably larger and heavier in every regard than those more commonly used to the south. Judging by how normal this appeared to all of them, this was also a tradition of the north, although it was quite hard to say exactly how this one came about.

Beyond the walls, all of the buildings were blatantly different to any that Wei Yi had seen in the other districts. Rather than making use of wood, almost everything was made of more regular sandstone, most buildings having a rather simple rectangular shape without much decoration or even doors on the outside, although most did manage with something that would prevent people from entering whenever they wanted, and wherever.

The only notable exceptions were the Ancestral Hall, which had some very intricate decorations, and the largest public structures, which had a lot of work put into their shape and ensuring that they would be able to maintain it for long periods of time, although sand still covered much of them and obscured their true forms.

Most of the major streets, to and from the various gates and major structures, were large and open allowing several caravans of the kind they were travelling in to travel alongside one another at the same time, but the streets beyond that were narrow and cast into shadow by the tall sandstone around them. There, fewer than four thin men could travel beside one another, and there was little space to move out of the way considering the fact that people were fully surrounded by sandstone. Meanwhile, the alleyways that weren’t used often were even smaller, with less space than necessary for two, meaning that it would be incredibly easy for someone to be encircled, but also rather easy for a combatant to use the bottleneck to their own advantage.

For the moment, however, the merchant caravan was not travelling there but towards one of the larger buildings on the main road, where most of the items within both of the striders were dropped off and Wei Yi and Shun Liu Min were left to sit amidst very little, with the former using this time to work on some clothing with the little that remained. Her new maid did still require a new outfit, and she would rather get it done as soon as possible.

By the time that they made it to the closest point to the residence at which they would be staying, she had already gotten most of her work done, and only a few finishing touches remained, which she could easily complete elsewhere. She picked up what she’d worked on, Shun Liu Min exited the strider after her, and they followed the merchant and his wife towards their residence.

It was at the end of a wider path than most, and it was clearly larger than most as well, although it had nothing on the mansion from which the two of them had escaped. There was even a proper front door on the property, with quite a few open holes in the walls which some could call windows. Cold air poured from all of them, making it rather obvious that there were quite a few temperature regulating methods on the inside, as that would otherwise be an immense waste of someone’s time and energy, whether they spent it on delivering ice or generating cold air with their planar energy.

That did make her think of something that she had learnt from the pair of otherworldly demons in the prison realm when she occasionally listened to their conversations. Apparently, the world or worlds that they originated from were powered by electricity, and that electricity needed to be paid for regularly. That meant that those that wished to cool their homes in something that they called the summer would need to pay constantly, and keep the windows shut as to prevent their investment from simply spilling out into the street and being wasted. Similarly, in something that they called the winter, where the world would become cold like the south, they would need windows that kept in the heat, and heaters.

To someone who had free energy all around herself, now even in the prison realm, such a thing was rather difficult to imagine, but it did explain why the otherworldly demons had a tendency to get rather overexcited the moment that they began to cultivate, aside from the curse of the azure light. To them, something so free and boundless clearly drove them to get more and more, to acquire as much of it as possible, and since their stories often tell of worlds akin to the Planar Continent having countless tiers and heights, they naturally seek to obtain something that they couldn’t have in the past, the azure light likely empowering that desire beyond any normal extent.

‘If that is the case, then it may be that an azure light has just as many difficulties creating foreign thoughts within another’s mind as cultivators do, and a thought needs to be plausible within the mind of another in order to be spawned. Then, it could be that the azure lights are equivalent in power to a tenth realm, where they have even fewer limits but are not utterly omnipotent.’

While such an idea had very little evidence behind it, seeing as she had no opportunity to ever interact with an azure light in a manner that didn’t leave her susceptible to being infiltrated by it, it could potentially allow Fu Zan and Miyu to cultivate beyond their current realms and still retain their sanity, although she would still much rather get rid of the azure lights within them than risk their presence. At that point, they could become powerful enough to use the otherworldly gifts themselves, and it would be far safer and better for their character.

In fact, the power of their otherworldly gift was certainly a factor in how quickly they fell to the azure light’s influence and their desire for power, as it gave them the feeling that they could be invincible.

As for the removal of the azure light, she did have some very vague ideas. The only thing that she believed to have any chance of being relevant was the energy of the fourth realm that she would soon obtain, as the Truth of the Universe, currently the only thing capable of repealing an azure light, was first nourished by the energy of that realm. If she had more, it could allow her to activate the repulsion array at will.

Such a thing was unlikely to be usable regularly nor frequently, but so long as she could supplement the energy of the characters even by a little bit, it would accelerate their regeneration and possibly allow her some control over when and where they activated.

Before she could get started on that, however, she had the large residence to consider. They had stepped inside while she was pondering, and she got to see that the interior of the buildings was truly far more complex than anything outside, as there was far less concern about sand getting in – courtesy of the inscriptions, once again – and fewer chances of the heat damaging anything. All kinds of expensive rugs, furniture, paintings and decorations were all over the house, and the doors that separated the sandstone rooms were no exception to the change in the level of complexity.

In fact, the entrance door was completely different on either side, with one being flat and bare while the other was painted and decorated in a more traditional manner.

“We tried to have a more southern aesthetic on the inside, since we both came from the south. You look to be from a more local area, so we hope that you appreciate the result,” Xin Fu introduced them to the residence, interpreting the general appearance of Wei Yi to indicate a more northern origin, “Darling, could I lead them to the rooms?”

“Go ahead. I will need to prepare for an auction of all of these things…”

“Are you intending to sell the inscription plates via auction? If so, I would like to attend, just for fun,” Wei Yi said.

“For fun? Well, whether that’s buying or just watching, the auction house will be reserved by me, so you can enter for free. If you do buy something, do not purchase your own inscriptions, since I want them to earn me a reputation, and do raise the price as much as possible. I better be making as much money as I possibly can!”

“I’d be almost certain that it is against the rules of whatever auction house you’ll use, but I will take it.”

“Excellent! Now, I’m leaving. Honey, you may lead them to the guest rooms, but make sure to take the valuables from there first. If they take something with them, then my profit margins will drop, and we can’t have that,” the merchant stated, turning away and heading off quickly.

His wife just smiled casually and bid them to follow her through the residence towards one of its corners, where several rooms were dedicated to whatever guests might visit the residence. Despite what Chen Xiu had instructed her wife to do, there seemed to be no particularly valuable items in any of the rooms, nor did Xin Fu choose to actually take anything away. It appeared that this was not only a common request, but one that didn’t actually need to be enforced.

There were four room for them to choose from, but for obvious reasons, neither of them intended to stay away from one another, so they occupied the nicest room they could find.

After the merchant’s wife told them that they could look for her if they needed anything, and that the walls were soundproof just in case they intended to do anything loud and explicit, then shut the door after herself and left for a different part of the residence, making sure to revoke her spiritual perception.

“Well, the implication of what we’re meant to do here is rather obvious. Their walls are actually rather good, despite their ordinary appearances,” Wei Yi chose not to get into anything straight away, and instead sat down on the double bed within the room, looking about casually with her legs spread apart slightly, “I’ve seen quite a lot of building occur in my time, and while the design was clearly hampered by the limitations of the structure and the general fragility of the material, quite a lot has been done with very little.”

“I suppose so… Not really familiar with these things. I was more occupied with cleaning back then.”

“Cleaning? Why don’t you… No, I’d feel like an idiot if I went with that line, so pretend like I didn’t say anything,” she said, “Still, you would have seen most of the house, so I doubt that you’d be entirely unfamiliar with what one extreme looks like. How does it compare, in your eyes?”

“In my opinion, it’s certainly different. It’s rather strange, actually. This place is similarly expensive, but it has an entirely different aura.”

“Perhaps. It is still far, far less golden and overdone than Ping Gangze’s home, and I suspect that you wouldn’t say the same thing if it had been created by the same interior designer. Even if it was far less sickening to observe, there needs to be such a thing as moderation in order to make something look less like a simple display of wealth.”

“That is certainly true as well,” Shun Liu Min agreed, standing uncertainly beside the bed.

From her perspective, the maid could see into the parted robe and what lay beneath, and while she did not recognise the underwear that Wei Yi wore and had no clue where or when she had put it on, understanding what lay within hardly took a genius.

It drew her attention, despite her best attempts to focus elsewhere amidst the rather dull discussion on the design of walls and general architecture, but the rather ambiguous posture and positioning of Wei Yi’s body made it rather difficult for her to figure out whether or not her current master was interested in accepting the obvious invitation from Xin Fu to take advantage of the silence. She would have asked, but despite her own words, the aura of the place was still suppressing her to an extent.

“Perhaps this is a law as well… When a human has resources, they will seek to use them. When there are too many, those usages will become excessive,” Wei Yi suddenly said.

“I… suppose?” it was a rather sudden statement, but despite no comment having been made on the topic that had occupied the maid’s head – and had done in more ways than one – it seemed to lighten the mood just enough, “Wei Yi, do you intend to get to it now, or are we going to wait?”

“Aren’t you a needy one,” Wei Yi removed her mask and smiled, but she quickly returned to a more neutral expression, “However, have you not yet noticed that Xin Fu had been looking at us for some time, and is clearly more than a little interested in any potential physical relationship? There are even places in all of these rooms where it is possible to spy on those inside of it quite easily.”

“You mean that she’s a voyeur?”

“The observation spots were likely created for a different reason, but it does seem like that woman does use them quite often. She is also waiting nearby, possibly expecting that we will not get into anything right away, on which she is quite right. I still have your clothing to complete, and then modify slightly to fit you perfectly. There is only so much that can be done with close observations of spiritual perception, after all,” she pointed out, picking up the clothes that she had been working on and getting back to it.

With the existence of the spying points revealed to her, Shun Liu Min reached out with her own spiritual perception and confirmed that there were several spots where it wasn’t particularly challenging to look inside, but was very difficult to look out.

“Why doesn’t she just use her spiritual perception? She is of a higher realm, and we could easily miss it.”

“She doesn’t know much about you, which could make that somewhat more doubtful, and she does know that I am an inscription master, meaning that my mental energy has to be higher than average in order for me to be able to get my work done so quickly, consistently and effectively as I had displayed in the strider,” Wei Yi explained while she quickly got her finishing touched on the clothing done, “The moment that we notice, we won’t do anything, and she won’t get her fill for today.”

“Oh… That’s not the only reason you have keen spiritual perception, is it? To spot that detail so quickly, you must have had a lot of experience and training with this kind of thing. Was the organisation you are in responsible?”

“Would you like to take part as well? So long as you don’t mind losing your cultivation, you can.”

“Is that a necessary part of the process? How can there even be spiritual perception without planar energy?”

The Ascendant smiled, but did not reveal her secrets that quickly, especially not when she could easily be observed at the wrong time by someone choosing to finally step away from the wall and get to her plans, unaware that the circumstances weren’t in her favour. Instead, she said, “Technically speaking, it cannot, but that is only without the existence of planar energy, not the lack of it.”

“Right, I think I may be able to see where you’re going with that. Spiritual perception is an aspect of the mind and exists within everyone, but is amplified by planar energy?”

“You got that surprisingly quickly. Yes, spiritual perception is an existence that exists in all, but it is precisely that planar energy’s very existence has caused it to exist as well. If the very concept of planar energy was to be erased, spiritual perception would follow it. While the concept, and the things born of it, persist, spiritual perception can still be brought out of the mind, out of the body, and into the world around you. It just takes effort and cultivation.”

“Hm, everything requires cultivation. The body, mind, energy… Is it all due to planar energy?”

“Depends on what you mean, really. If you are talking about physiques and spiritual will, then yes, that’s the direct result of planar energy, but if you are referring to the mere fact that the body can be trained, and the mind can be practised, then no, I don’t believe that to be the case. If all planar energy was to never have existed, then muscles should still be something that you can train, and the mind should still be something that you can refine with frequent practise,” Wei Yi supposed, glancing towards the door while continuing to work upon the fabric in her hands, “I doubt that it would be otherwise.”

From what she knew, it wasn’t at all a strange concept for the otherworldly demons, who supposedly had no planar energy whatsoever, so unless they had merely failed to discover it despite the countless stories of energy akin to it they had created, it meant that the development of the body and mind was independent of planar energy, instead only being enhanced by it.

“That is very interesting. I suppose that you have done a lot of study into this field alongside your inscription work. I’d love to join in at some point.”

“In that case-” Wei Yi began, but suddenly turned to the wall with the doorway and said, “There, finally. Go away, so that we can actually get onto something interesting, and then we won’t share your tendencies with your husband.”

They could immediately hear some shuffling on the other side, contrary to the previous silence. It seemed that the person who was preparing to hide there had not expected to be called out like that, and her methods of keeping quiet failed right away. Even without focusing, it was possible to hear faint footsteps rapidly retreating from the hiding spot, although whether she did that due to believing that she was actually found or due to her fantasy being ruined, or some other reason, wasn’t certain.

Perhaps she hadn’t been caught before, and so she hadn’t considered that it was possible to just remain quiet and keep watching, unless the people inside the room decided to leave and investigate.

“Well, that was easy. I’ve not finished your clothes just yet, but that does give us enough time to keep watching just in case she returns,” Wei Yi said, lowering her gaze, “If you don’t want to, you don’t need to keep the conversation going.”

“No, no, it’s something that I’m interested in, although it did sound dry enough to catch her off-guard if you hadn’t called her out right there and then,” Shun Liu Min replied as she sat down beside her and watched the progress that her master made without so much as a single direct comment, “To consider the nature of the world in depth and to try and understand why it functions as it does might eventually lead us all somewhere. I don’t know what it could be, or who will find it, but could you imagine developing some new path as much as the Ju District had developed their mechanisms?”

“I certainly can. You will see something like that if you stick with me.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it, then.”

 

“- and, done! This better fit you properly,” Wei Yi rose and presented her creation to the maid, who had gotten up in this time and was inspecting the wall through which they could be watched, doing so with some fascination at just how difficult to notice the hole in the wall was.

“I will try it on immediately. Could you-”

“Come on, turn around and I’ll put it on. Since it has been a while since I last did this, I may have not been quite as accurate as I would have liked to be, but it should still be perfectly fine.”

Perhaps if she had been as inaccurate as a typical person who hadn’t done something in years, Shun Liu Min would have voiced some complaints, but it was difficult to do so when she couldn’t notice any flaws in the admittedly minimal amount of work that had been invested into the two pieces clothing. She wasn’t even sure whether there were some that only Wei Yi had noticed, or if she was just trying to be humble.

The first piece was a cloth top that covered her chest and wrapped around her back and shoulders, with short sleeves and a shape that emphasised the breasts more than just a little bit. It was put onto her after the remaining cloth strips from the maid dress were torn away and fit well.

“Wei Yi, you really are fond of them, aren’t you?” Shun Liu Min asked, looking down at her chest.

Although most of her skin there was covered, the shape was not obscured in the slightest, and if one was to look from below, the loose fabric revealed most of the lower half of each breast with little obstruction. It was also easy to either one of them to be groped and felt up due to the rather thin nature of the cloth used for the item of clothing.

“Naturally. If not for the issues that come with them, I would have made sure that my own were larger by a size or two.”

“And this is this the kind of outfit that you prefer?”

“I designed it like that because of the northern heat, as well as the shortage of materials. When I create a small temperature modifying inscription that you could carry with you, or when you cultivate a technique to deal with the heat, then I can get a proper professional to make something that is specifically to my tastes. Before then, this works well enough, I think,” Wei Yi said, going down on a knee as to assist the maid with putting on the lower portion of her new outfit, “Come on, get out of those rags.”

Shun Liu Min did so as she asked, “Do you know of any professionals in this field? I could also offer a few ideas to them, based on the kinds of things that I had seen at ‘his’ residence.”

“In fact, I have one working for me, but until we can get back to him, let’s not bother with thinking about that sort of thing. Just memorise every decent idea or note them down and give the notes to me, and when we get around to it, I will be sure to watch you try out every single outfit in as much detail as necessary.”

With the remnants of black and white fabric gone, and stored away just because a single torn strip of the maid outfit could likely sell for a couple gold coins, more if the material was enhanced via the Red Shaper’s Grasp to be made more durable, the other piece of the new outfit was placed onto her.

While the upper portion of the outfit was loose and free, the bottom pair of shorts was very tight, making sure to emphasise the butt just as much. Unlike the pale and partly translucent cloth used for the top, the shorts were made of a dark leather, meant to mimic some of the designs that Fu Zan had himself copied from the world of his origin, and if not for the slight inflexibility of the material, it likely would have exposed certain shapes that they were meant to obscure.

“However, being made out of leather… I will sweat quite a lot.”

“You do so anyway, so get used to it,” Wei Yi said, “Besides, didn’t you say that you wanted these to satisfy me? I am very much satisfied with this.”

“I will make sure to remember that… Oh, that does explain a few things about the previous days. No wonder you didn’t want me to get cleaned up after those few times… I will be entirely honest, this is significantly more comfortable to move around in than those large dresses from before,” the maid said as she tried out her range of movement, the implication of what she meant by it being rather clear.

“Noted, although I do walk around and fight in robes, so anything can be designed to be comfortable so long as you do it properly. Now, don’t be alarmed if you suddenly feel-”

Her warning didn’t quite get to Shun Liu Min in time as she felt a cold sensation suddenly envelop her body, wrapping around it tightly as if she had been sealed in a form-fitting bubble that followed every little curve of her body, including the countless strands of hair on her head, the minor irregularities of her skin, her teeth, and a trace of that coldness even reached into her body, although that felt far fainter and seemed to vanish right away.

Although she managed to avoid making any kind of noise when the cold touched her, she still released a gasp when it slowly faded, leaving her to ponder whether or not she had just imagined that effect after hearing Wei Yi’s words.

“What was that?” the maid asked, her spiritual perception being unable to find a thing.

“You probably didn’t notice that I had left a plate of metal inside the shorts, which is good, as that was the intention. It’s an inscription, compressed quite significantly.”

“A temperature regulation inscription?” she asked again, but when her only answer was a shake of the head, she frowned, “How could that be? The cold sensation was rather distinct, and I doubt that another inscription would result in such a thing…”

“That’s because it is a modified Armour Forming inscription. It will have that effect when it activates, but it should already be going away.”

Indeed, the moment that she tried to feel the membrane around herself again, Shun Liu Min found no trace of it that she was able to perceive with her regular senses. Her spiritual perception informed her that there was indeed something around or even on her, and with a little more searching she was able to find that aforementioned golden piece of metal at the back of the leather shorts, within the region where they ended and her light skin began.

“Now, I hope you’ve gotten used to that, because now that our audience has finally concluded that it isn’t in her best interests to remain, we should have quite a bit of time for ourselves. As such, I’ll let you decide exactly how we shall be spending that time – at least at first.”

With that, a familiar smile beginning to form and a glimmer in her eyes, she parted her legs further, although she didn’t take any action beside that.

“That’s… not fair…” Shun Liu Min complained, but it was difficult to take any complain seriously when she was already on her knees, pulling down the underwear that concealed her goal while looking into Wei Yi’s eyes with a gaze full of desire. Some small part of it was due to the remnant imperfections from Ping Gangze’s food, drink and pills, but most of it was coming from her own mind, unaffected by such things.