The archives of the Guardians of Purity were more extensive than their leader’s comments on their losses would have suggested, but they did not contain the answers that she wanted written in plain text. She was sure that she could obtain them from the words within them, but that occupied time and thus couldn’t be completed before the day had finally come to an end, and the sun began to rise once more to herald the next day.

It was time for her and the district’s people to act, so sitting around was not an option.

As for her intentions with the knowledge, it was obviously to improve her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, which could always play a significant part in achieving literally every goal on her list. While something like Touch the Heavens was obviously her most powerful technique so far, the Arm combined five distinct types of energy in a fashion that made it the one with the most potential for exploring the nature of the world itself. Perhaps she could even unite the five types of energy into the absolute state of planar energy, eventually, but it was not necessary nor high on her list of priorities for the moment.

She provided a few instructions and recommendations to Qi Su, as well as a few suggestions on how to improve his current technique so that he would be of more use during the upcoming conflict, and made sure that he would be able to manifest the portal the next day before departing. Had she not done so, all of the time spent here may have ended up being wasted the next day.

Disappearing from the underground complex of the Guardians of Purity in the same way that she had ended up there in the first place, she found herself a few dozen metres above the roof of a large mansion located vaguely in the middle of the district. It wasn’t exactly where she had intended to appear, making it rather clear to her that the attempts to calculate spatial coordinates like she’d done the last two uses of her fourth realm movement method were not as successful as she would have liked, but she did at the very least end up above various objects, rather than in them. Depending on how the world handled such a thing, she might lose quite a few more limbs than she had already lost over the years.

‘Now, Gang Xiu Ling, where… ah, there. Already fighting, too. How nice,’ Wei Yi sighed internally, straightening her back and stretching for a moment before she used the safer method of visually establishing her destination for the movement technique.

Few had even bothered looking up during the night, so none knew that she had even been on the roof.

 

“Have you not done enough to sully our reputation and traditions, Xiu Ling?” a man asked, holding a mace within one hand and tapping palm of his other hand with the shaft, “The Patriarch had kindly permitted you to depart without any interruption, and yet you not only return here, but you continue to act in the very manner that had gotten you removed from the district! You have not learned a single thing while you were outside, have you?”

The potential future Matriarch and her lover were stopped in the street by a group of armed combatants, who blocked both sides of the road and wielded various weaponry more suitable for injuring and disfiguring than outright killing. With the natural durability of cultivators, the majority of superficial and external injuries could be dealt with, or at the very least survived, as even those who forgot all about refining their bodies after the first realm would have the benefits that powerful energy flowing through the body tended to provide. Hence, so long as one used clubs and other blunt objects to beat someone, they would be able to endure the attacks so long as the attackers were careful never to go beyond a certain limit of force and restrained from attacking the same places over and over again to accumulate injury.

Maces weren’t the most pleasant weapon to be struck with, but a special planar technique could allow the strikes to be little more than that, in the same way that dulling the sword would allow strikes to be effective at causing bruising far more than cuts and scars.

“I see no reason to explain myself to someone acting like a basic thug. Are you not concerned with what I could reveal to the people around us?” Gang Xiu Ling replied, looking behind him to a small crowd that began to gather once she was stopped in the street. They did not look like anyone important, but as their numbers grew, information revealed here could spread very easily.

“You have nothing that could ever paint the Patriarch in a negative light, not to mention anything truly negative.”

“How about the fact that he has been tricking an ancient organisation as interested in maintaining tradition as our Gang family has been?” Gang Xiu Ling said, raising her voice while stepping closer to Lan Mu as to be able to protect her from the thugs in the fourth and fifth realm – describing them as thugs was only accurate in their current activity, as she recognised a number of them from the main Gang family’s forces. It was why she did not deign to mention their true nature, as they were not acting in a way that suited their identity.

“Stop your attempt at slandering our Patriarch this very moment-”

“He had intentionally constructed a web of deceit to remove my chance of becoming Matriarch, and now he will prevent this district from benefitting from the growth of the entire world around us!” she witnessed their hesitation and continued with far greater confidence than before.

This turned out to be a mistake, for the moment that she had raised her voice just a little too far, the dozen or so thugs that had surrounded them rushed towards them, raising their weaponry as they prepared to bring it down upon her. Due to their distance from her, she had a few moments to prepare, and chose to first grab Lan Mu’s waist and pull her over into an embrace, conjuring her planar core to surround them both.

A searing mark on its surface visibly surged as a great mass of branch-like planar constructs burst out from the core’s surface. All of them surged out at the attackers, spreading out into unpredictable shapes and being quickly covered with all kinds of moss and leaves that made the individual branches distinct in both appearance and function.

It was a staple of the Gang family, and so her opponents reacted quickly, striking at specific parts of the branches with careful bursts of their own energy converted into another element. For typical use, all methods of conversion other than the Ascendant’s were essentially pointless, but when these elemental bursts collided with the weak points of the branches they quickly snapped them off and caused cracks to travel up the wood-type energy, the stability of the construct being negated with a few precise hits.

Since they attacked from two sides, mainly, half of them were sufficient to ward off the branches while the other half leapt up and momentarily supported themselves with various movement methods, using their time in the air to manifest a large vortex of swirling branches before their chests, with more and more appearing with each breath that they took. As soon as they were unable to maintain their stable position in the air, all five thrust their hands forth, causing the wooden tendrils to do the same.

Countless branches, dense, thick, and covered in sharp thorns, flew out and collided with the marked core, leaving small dots upon its surface while their summoners dropped to the ground and charged in to replace their fellows.

“What a rude bunch. I do have to agree with you, Gang Xiu Ling,” a voice, feminine yet powerful and incredibly commanding, forced their attention to a nearby rooftop, where they found the source sitting on the edge of the roof with her legs hanging off the edge, waving leisurely back and forth while one hand supported her by clinging onto that same edge.

She wore a red robe with thick fur boots being clearly visible from their angle of viewing, and her single hand was covered in half by the robe, and in part by a dark metal gauntlet with claw-like fingers and an impossibly perfect surface.

“These are the matters of the Gang family. Get-”

She glanced at him and, with a mass of smoke suddenly appearing at her left shoulder, said, “Fall.”

The smoke instantly dispersed, bursting outwards and almost reaching some of them before vanishing, but the man she had addressed felt himself suddenly being thrown to the ground, his very perspective on the world shifting until he lay on the ground, unable to stand up nor even contemplate how he may move his limbs and body in order to achieve such a thing. Somehow, the very notion became impossible to him.

“What do you think-”

A woman from the same force tried to speak up, but she immediately felt the eyes of the woman dressed in red upon her.

“Pause.”

Smoke appeared and shattered once again, but now the woman could not provide much of an account even if she had been keen on doing so. The moment that the word was said, it was as if the world blinked forward for her, whereas for all the rest, she looked to be completely frozen – not in ice, but in a perfect temporal statis that not even those in the eighth realm were said to be able to achieve.

The Ascendant turned to the other half of the group that she had yet to target, and they seemed to take that as a form of provocation. Both halves of the group turned to her and leapt into the air, using various methods to either climb with multiple steps or to be thrust upwards in a single go, allowing them to reach her while focusing on other matters during their attempt to reach her. For a moment, it almost seemed that they would succeed, for they did not sense any particular aura rising from the woman in red.

However, the appearance of the smoke, shaped like an arm and clawed hand, proved them wrong.

“Drop. Land. Retreat. Revert,” she spoke four times in quick succession, the smoke manifesting and dispersing each time as she looked from one group to the other, targeting one at a time.

With one breath of words, she took down the four nearest to her. The rest paused, as they had been those that used methods to take several steps in the air rather than jumping up in one go, and glanced at one another in an attempt to determine whether it was even worthwhile to continue in their attempt, as, to their knowledge, the woman had yet to use a single ordinary planar method, meaning that most of her power was yet to be seen.

“What kind of trickery are you using?” one asked, energy suddenly surging in their eyes, “We will kill you-”

“Oh, no you won’t. Break,” the Ascendant commanded, leaning forward as the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow manifested and broke apart yet again, “Fracture. Cease. Die. Perish. End.”

The last command in particular caused a great number of internal wounds to appear instantly, as the instruction for something to abruptly end was far more challenging to execute than to cause someone to die. After all, death was not only a natural aspect of all life, but could be achieved even by a child so long as they pressed against the right point with sufficient force. To make something end completely and suddenly, however, was to go against the very nature of reality, where all things continued even in death, and thus did a number on her body, luckily not aggravating the existing wound on the left shoulder.

As she was used to hiding it, all that the observers received was the sight of five perishing without a single chance to dodge, to block any kind of strike, even if it was incredibly fast and tricky to follow. There was nothing that they could do.

“So, are you lot going to go away now? Make sure to tell your Patriarch that this is the kind of thing that can be developed so long as one bothers to look outside of the narrow bubble of tradition.”

Those left standing, as well as the woman that had been frozen in time for a brief while, took a moment to look at their fallen companions, then rushed away from the scene as quickly as they possibly could. They hastened past the gathered crowd and disappeared soon after, leaving only the crowd and the core within which Gang Xiu Ling and Lan Mu stood, with it disappearing not too long after the last of the attackers left the scene, with the two remaining close together.

Wei Yi jumped down to their level and quietly patted away the snow from the back of her robe.

“Why did you not just enter the same way you stopped me on the road?” Gang Xiu Ling asked, her hand unconsciously stroking the back of her lover.

“You are going to be attempting to become a Matriarch, so why don’t you try to think about it more? Right now, we have a lot of observers, do we not?” the Ascendant asked quietly, using a thin barrier to keep her voice from reaching any of them, “Now, if they see that a foreign figure was able to take down some decent warriors without so much as a drop of planar energy being visibly expended, do you not think that they will get a much better impression of the outside world that they seem to be happy to ignore. They will see that you have a powerful figure on your side, and that your claim can be more than just a child’s refusal to accept defeat.”

She understood it quickly – it would be difficult not to, when everything was spelled out for her as clearly as it could be without indeed talking down to her like a child – and nodded, “So that’s what it was. I don’t think we had even called out for you, so…”

“My spiritual perception extends far, and the time spent in the hideout of the Guardians of Purity was not that long. That being said, mentioning them might not have been the best idea. Now that they know that we know, it will be more difficult to use the element of surprise, not to mention the fact that they will no longer include the Guardians in their plans, thus preventing us from learning about said plans via the Guardians. It shouldn’t cause too many problems, but it is something to pay attention to.”

“Ah…”

“She can get like that, sometimes…” Lan Mu muttered, somehow getting even closer to the woman holding her despite their already tight embrace, “She can also get quite hard, too-”

“This is not the time, please.”

“I should be the one telling you that.”

“In that case, I’ll tell the lot of you that it isn’t the time. How about that?” Wei Yi interrupted them and turned towards the larger crowd to their side, removing the barrier as she did so, “The rest of you should go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a big day, and you wouldn’t want to miss it or be out of it when the day comes.”

When she began speaking, everyone in the crowd trembled, with most attempting to restrain their reaction but still failing to hide them. It took most of them some time to realise that they had not been affected by the same kind of effect as those whose bodies lay on the ground, with some slowly losing the blood that remained in their bodies whereas others could almost pass for combatants that had decided to sleep in an odd place, and did so surprisingly calmly. Slowly, the crowd began to fall apart, and in time they were all gone, save for the pedestrians that continued to walk on by, occasionally glancing into the road but looking away soon after.

Meanwhile, the Ascendant and the potential future Matriarch returned to the home of the latter, with Lan Mu being asked to go to sleep as her realm was not currently high enough to allow her to endure several days in a row without sufficient rest.

She did want to sleep with her lover, but as Gang Xiu Ling and Wei Yi had important matters to discuss, she understood the severity of the situation and eventually fell asleep in their bed, while the other two occupied two seats by a dining table on the first floor. The potential future Matriarch produced a cup of tea for herself, offering some to the Ascendant, but she refused and instead produced a spare planar shard, biting on it as if it was a snack.

“That, uh… Are you really doing that? Are your teeth strong enough to do that?”

“It’s just solid planar energy. In the sixth realm, this kind of thing should be easy for most if they infuse their planar energy into their teeth,” Wei Yi replied, although she did not need to use the method she herself described as her continued purification and strengthening with her planar energy kept her whole body strong and sturdy, “It’s just that it would be a little wasteful.”

“It seems to me that it still is, even if all of that goes into your body properly… Does it taste good, at least?”

“I don’t taste a single fucking thing. None. Hence I’m not even trying to drink your tea, although I’m sure it’s great,” Wei Yi answered, biting off another small piece of planar material, “There’s a bit of bitterness from this, but that’s the extent of what I can feel from things that are not edible, nor meant to be edible. From regular food, I can’t get anything, and I will be honest, it has been rather annoying for some time.”

“Really? How does that even work? Can you still smell things? Non-food and food alike?”

“I can smell everything in your room, but I suspect that is not what you wanted to know. The way in which this works makes no sense, but it does, so I’ve been forced to deal with it.”

“Well then… I guess… that’s… good?”

“Depends on your preferences, really. If you don’t care about the taste of food, which I don’t, instead being irritated more by the fact that I simply don’t get the choice, or if you like certain tastes and scents far more than others, which I sometimes do, then you will be in a very decent situation where you don’t have to deal with a lot of things,” the Ascendant said, her distracted expression and gaze suddenly focusing on the woman before her, “The fourth point – what was it?”

“The fourth… Ah, I remember that I was going to say something, but I cannot remember anything specific at all. It was definitely something important, I am sure of that, but…” the potential future Matriarch sighed, the rest not needing to be repeated.

“Expect the next day to be very dangerous, then. We have been able to discard the approval of the guardians for the moment, but that fourth point was nearly guaranteed to be something that would be significant even now. As such, you must be prepared for anything that is within the power of the Gang District, a boundary that you should be more familiar with than I am, so if I see you doing anything recklessly, I will not be kind to you when this is all done,” she stated, speaking sternly, “Make sure that you understand that, as well as the fact that Lan Mu is still awake and is going to try to get your pants once you get into the bed, not that you bother with those there, so make sure not to let her.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because she is awake and having fun with herself. Again, I could be more graphic and explicit, but I doubt that you lack an understanding of the matter.”

“I… yeah, I don’t need to be told. You probably also don’t need to know that she may or may not have started it all for me. The interest in women, and sleeping with them, and all that. She was interested in me far earlier than I in her, and-”

“You began that with the accurate guess that I lacked much interest in the subject. Why continue?”

“… Nobody else knows, and I had never told anyone how it happened. You know, being a Matriarch candidate, there are some things you don’t really say even if you lose that identity.”

Wei Yi shrugged, “There have been some cases of that kind of thing. You being so far at the south since departing from the district hasn’t helped, I imagine. Fine, if you really want to tell me this, and if you believe that I need to hear it, then I can very well listen to everything you have to say. Just don’t expect any particular kind of response from me, as I have already done a little too much to influence the district and its people.”

“Alright. So, Lan Mu…”

 

The next day came, and the three were awake, standing at the doorway, armed and ready.

Wei Yi did not have any additional weapons to carry, but she did switch from her fur boots to her previous star metal heels. She wanted to be at her best now, and she was going to travel further north soon enough, reaching the Southern Tundra half-way to the Xin or Shun Districts, so there was less point in wearing appropriate attire for the weather and tradition.

Lan Mu was not going to be able to participate in most battles, as her personal strength was only so high, and her ability to defend herself was also limited as a result, but that is also why she needed to be the most equipped. She replaced most of her usual attire with armoured variants, quickly created by Wei Yi upon her request, as well as a shield similarly made for the occasion. The shield united the admittedly limited comprehension that the Ascendant had on the topic of barriers, protection and shielding, manifesting the properties of a few of her techniques and physiques in order to be imbued with as much power as possible.

The woman could have been given a sword or some other weapon, but her proficiency with planar energy was superior to her skill in using a weapon, so it was decided that this would not be necessary.

Gang Xiu Ling had a few pieces of armour from her earlier days of being an ordinary candidate for the position of Matriarch, all of which were enhanced by the Ascendant, and also brought along a speared staff that was made almost entirely of high-grade planar materials weaved into a delicate yet powerful shape. It was useful enough as a physical weapon, but it would do more to enhance the energy of the one using it, amplifying the effects of techniques that Gang Xiu Ling is able to stretch through its channels.

This was a weapon she had kept but rarely used, mostly due to rather attention-grabbing nature of any ornate and large tool (a comment that would elicit a giggle out of the woman). Despite that, most of her techniques were, as wood-type techniques tended to be, based or inspired by the natural world, and hence had many elements of branches, vines and other natural tendrils, as it were. They were meant to travel through the outside, but they could be directed through channels easily enough.

With it, her attacks would be a two dozen percent more effective, or somewhere around that level, which was not as great as rising by a stage or two, but it was far more than nothing. With some minimal modification from the Ascendant, it also supported any energy provided with a thin layer of other elements to prevent the same attacks that had been used by the Gang family’s warriors from being effective. Something this simple could be worked around without much effort on the part of their opponents, but it would take a few precious moments to figure out how to deal with the problem that might save her life.

“Can you still not remember the fourth point?”

“… No. I should be able to, logically speaking, since I don’t think we have any methods to prevent certain memories from being accessed, and-”

“Guardians of Purity shouldn’t be doing anything against you either, and any methods that they had would have been dispersed by now, according to my orders. Thus, this is either your mind failing terribly to recall something significant, you forgetting to inform me about something either deliberately or otherwise, or a secret method of the Gang District that you have never been informed of.”

“I’m not lying to you, so it has to be one of the other two…”

Lan Mu sighed, “You two are strong, though, right? Provided that something wrong does occur, you should be able to protect Ah Ling, so its fine, isn’t it? Speaking of, didn’t you have some kind of plan to quickly raise her realm?”

That caused the two of them to look toward Wei Yi.

“I did. To cultivate in the best fashion possible, you should adjust to the growth in power as it occurs. Given that we are very likely to get into several violent altercations before the day is done, I have infused the planar materials in your staff with as much energy as I was able to. That should bring you up by at least one stage, and then the rest can be done as you are promoted to Matriarch, at which point there will be much less danger to you.”

“Would being at the seventh realm not make it significantly easier for us to fight, though?”

“Lan Mu, when you had reached the third realm, did you have the same kind of strength that you have now? Did you have all of your techniques, the understanding of said techniques, and ideas on how to use them most effectively? Something tells me that, unless you have been lucky or unlucky enough to have experienced several lives and thus have sufficient experience to know what to do at the third realm, you were rather clueless at the very start,” Wei Yi said, turning to Gang Xia Ling, “You may benefit from the seventh realm in terms of raw power, but your inexperience will lead to excessive use of energy and a great deal of damage to your surroundings if you are unable to control yourself sufficiently. Would you want to damage the district you wish to rule?”

“No, I wouldn’t. Still, in the seventh realm, I’d have divine sense, an oblivion halo or few, so I should be able to endure attacks far more effectively, at least.”

“How about the fact that I cannot set up a sufficiently large array to provide you with safe energy without bringing in the entire district onto you and causing an even more significant fight than the one I dealt with before?” she asked, “Just stop asking stupid questions and go. I’ll call the other two.”

They were finally convinced to leave, at which point she could begin to reach out with her mental energy.

‘The Patriarch might do something sensible for once, so if you were in the seventh realm, getting rid of you would be more difficult. Surely this is something that would be understood by anyone with half a brain?’ the Ascendant thought to herself, making her selection of Matriarch candidate more and more difficult, ‘I truly hope she is just being distracted by certain other matters, since she should recall that I had only gone with her because she was on the way. I’ll see, won’t I…’