Path of the Ascendant

“Alri- sorry, what?” Yi Wei nearly did as instructed before she realised exactly what that instruction was.

“I said that you should fight the six people that are standing in front of my house, so that I can judge your abilities.”

‘… Well, at least she says she’s doing this for a reason,’ the red-haired girl sighed, though she still nodded, “Alright. They’re not in the Planar Pool realm, are they?”

“No.”

Since it was clear that the blacksmith didn’t intend to reveal anything else, Yi Wei handed over the bag in which she had stored her recent purchases and slowly walked in the direction of the group. It was composed of five men and one woman, dressed in basic clothing. Two of the men had a dagger on their belts, while the woman looked to have a whip wound around her right arm. They noticed her only once she came into speaking distance. One man shared a glance with another, then stepped forward to block her path.

“Hey, if you don’t have business ‘round here, I recommend you back off,” he said, his arms folded, standing as tall as he could.

“Can’t do that, I’m afraid.”

He frowned, “What stage are you on?”

“What’s your stage?”

“I asked first.”

“But if I receive an answer, I might just back off,” Yi Wei replied, coursing her body energy in preparation for the fight.

The man’s frown deepened. He briefly glanced back to a member of his group, then answered, “Two are at the fifth, three at the sixth, one at the seventh. Now, are you backin’ off?”

“No.”

“Then answer my question.”

“You could think of me as being in the fifth stage,” she said, ‘Everyone else arrives at that conclusion anyway. Next week, they’ll think I’m at the seventh stage, if I’m lucky enough.’

Hearing that, a smirk appeared on four members of the group, including the man in front of her, “Just one fifth stager against us? Are you stupid?”

“On the contrary, I believe my intellect is my best feature,” Yi Wei answered, raising a fist, “So, are we fighting, then?”

This time, they did not need to share a glance – they simply charged at her, each preparing some combat technique to use against her. The men were at the front, while the woman hung back; based on the light glowing within their blood, two men were practising wood techniques, while the rest used metal, fire and earth skills. Curiously enough, the dark-haired woman, whose face was mostly obscured by her hair, did not circulate her energy.

‘Interesting. Unfortunately for her, unless she is in the Planar Pool realm, I should be fine,’ she thought for a moment, before returning her attention to the charging group, ‘based on the vibrance of their energy, the ones practising metal and earth techniques are in the fifth stage, and since metal is naturally brittle, he’s the best target. First, though, I should test the current defensive properties of my body.’

Anticipating where the thugs were intending to strike, Yi Wei raised her arms to block the metal cultivator’s attack.

His punch landed near her elbow, and for a moment, she had to question whether he had used some sort of illusory technique. Despite him clearly hitting her as hard as he could, she felt as if she was under attack by a young girl, as, speaking with experience, she couldn’t imagine any young boy capable of inflicting that little pain.

Seeing that this fifth stage man wasn’t worth her time, she threw a Gentle Breeze Strike at him. He reacted with surprising speed, but just as he was about to grab her approaching fist, she opened it into a palm that gained a completely different aura.

‘Sizzling Palm!’

She had not achieved Initial Accomplishment with any of the techniques she had gathered today, but that didn’t stop her from using its basic concept.

Her palm struck the man’s chest with a loud bang, forcing him back by one step. However, the main force of the Sizzling Palm was the continuous burning it would inflict for several seconds afterwards. Just as he thought that her technique was lacking or incomplete, he felt as if his entire chest was suddenly covered in flame. It seemed to melt his planar energy, preventing him from properly circulating it, and the pain escalated over several seconds until he could no longer hold on, and dropped to the ground, unconscious.

‘To think combining it with purple planar energy would have that sort of effect,’ Yi Wei noticed the additional effects with a smile, grabbing the fist of the attacking fire cultivator.  However, before she could strike him as well, a whip struck her free arm, wrapping tightly around it.

The whip’s handle was held by the woman at the back, and a water of current seemed to flow from her into the whip. Clearly, this was a low-grade artefact!

Yi Wei had heard quite a number of rumours regarding such items. Even at the first realm, a cultivator could infuse their planar energy into it to significantly raise their power, elevating the weapons from simply being durable to being incredibly effective. Indeed, even with her Condensed Formation Body, the whip was able to cut into her skin, though not too deeply.

Still, this wasn’t much of an issue. While the fire cultivator pulled his hand back to hit her, she grabbed onto the length of the whip and pulled with her full strength, exerting twice the force she used for her Sizzling Palm.

Before the black-haired woman understood what happened, she found herself flying towards Yi Wei, right into the path of the fire cultivator’s attack. His hit landed on her shoulder, the pain causing her to weaken her hold on the low-grade artefact. Yi Wei noticed, and immediately pulled again, catching the whip’s handle as she released her opponent’s fist and jumped back.

Using the distraction, she took a brief look at the artefact. Despite its name, now that it no longer had the woman’s planar energy coursing through it, the item looked no greater than a simple leather whip, perhaps even seeming worse than a typical one.

‘In that case, let’s see what my planar energy would do with it,’ she thought, directing a wisp of her energy into it.

Suddenly, she heard a crackling sound coming from her hand, and without thinking she tossed the whip right into the middle of the group. It smacked into the face of a wood cultivator, then its surface cracked.

The next moment, it burst into a bright violet light, and exploded. The blast consumed all six of the thugs, and likely blinded any low-realm onlooker in the vicinity. When the light dimmed, it revealed a large, ruined patch within the road, and five heavily injured male bodies. The woman was nowhere to be found.

‘Well… whoops?’ Yi Wei looked down at her hand, where the low-grade artefact was just moments ago, ‘Why did it react this way? Everything else I’ve tried seems to have worked well enough with my planar energy.’

“Young lady, if there is one thing I have learnt from this, it’s that you’re not fated to use weapons,” Ning Guanting said, approaching her, “Though your body and cultivation are intriguing. If you’re not at the fifth stage, then which one are you at?”

“The third. For whatever reason, everyone always seems to think it’s greater than that.”

“That’s only natural. Even though you’ve no proper technique, your planar energy alone is enough to make up for it, allowing you to use that skill properly without actually cultivating its essence,” she stated, grabbing Yi Wei’s arm, “I wasn’t aware that you cultivated a body skill, either. Somehow, it seems like you’ve got a skill on par with my Anvil of a Thousand Strikes.”

“Anvil of a Thousand Strikes? I’ve not heard of such a skill before,” Yi Wei spoke with great confidence – she had every basic body cultivation technique in her head, and nothing of the sort was among them.

“Of course you wouldn’t have, Yi girl,” the blacksmith replied, “It’s not something your family will ever get its slimy hands on... ahem. Mind telling me how you managed it?”

“I… I’d prefer not to.”

“Alright then. Go inside.”

Yi Wei was prepared to defend herself, or plead for mercy, but the woman’s quick dismissal of the matter surprised her, ‘If I can’t even sense her spiritual will, she must be on the fourth realm, if not higher, and yet I am able to match a body technique she uses, but she doesn’t want it? That’s… not what would have happened if I was speaking to a Yi family elder. He or she would sooner tear out my dantian and examine how I can cultivate so quickly than letting me go free. Speaking of which, I’m glad someone as minor as me hasn’t gotten acquainted with such a person.’

The old woman didn’t spare her a second look, so she followed her into the large house.

It was far less luxurious than Lou Xiuying’s talisman shop, containing no decorations nor items of convenience, like chairs, seats or tables. The only pieces of furniture were those that related in some way to blacksmithing: an anvil, forge, several shelves and holders of various tools and hammers, as well as certain things that Yi Wei had no knowledge of.

In a lonely corner, far away from everything else, was a small stack of books, covered so entirely with dust that it was difficult to see their colour or the words on their covers. Unfortunately, the book at the top was the one Ning Guanting pointed to, “That’s your book. Read for an hour.”

Immediately after, she threw down the bag given to her by Yi Wei and turned to the window, looking onto the faint beam of light that was streaming in, as if she intended to use it to measure the time.

Seeing that she didn’t have any leeway, Yi Wei went over and picked up the book, wiping off a layer of dust thinker than the cover. ‘One, Two and Three Star Blacksmithing’, it read on the front, with no other text or images.

The inside was different. Completely different. The first page contained a dozen expertly drawn diagrams, and text written in such small lettering that she needed to circulate planar energy to her eyes to be able to properly read it. The words within were all deep and complex, clearly written by someone with deep insights into their craft, as the statements and descriptions were all clear and lead right to the depths of the profession.

That single page, despite Yi Wei’s lack of experience with blacksmithing, made her feel as if she suddenly understood a lot more than she had before, so she continued onto the next page.

 

“Finish-”

She shut the book calmly, having completed the last page that very instant.

“- reading. Hm, Yi girl, I can see why you like books. With that speed, listening to any lecture would just be a waste of time,” the old woman said, grabbing a hammer off the shelf, “Catch.”

Despite the ease with which the elderly blacksmith tossed the hammer over to her, Yi Wei felt her arm straining under its weight. The handle was clearly made out of ordinary wood, so she examined the head. It, too, seemed ordinary, until she noticed faint etchings on all sides of it, as well as the aura of a formation array or two from within.

“Have you figured it out?”

“There are at least two arrays inside, and possibly a few external ones as well. However, the patterns on the outside… are they inscriptions?”

“Correct. What about the metal?”

“It looks like ordinary steel, but I think it’s being hidden by some part of the engravings or arrays. In truth, is it made from titan magnetite?”

She nodded, “That’s the sort of thing you can learn from books. Titan magnetite is the correct answer. Now, why don’t you try making something with it? A simple blade, maybe a dagger, shouldn’t be too hard, right?”

Looking around, Yi Wei saw various bits and pieces that she now recognised from the book, so she took them and brought them to the forge.

The master blacksmith watched in silence as Yi Wei went about the various tasks with surprising proficiency for someone who had never handled metal before, though it was clear that her movements were mechanical, following the raw instructions rather than understanding most of the essence behind them.

She was able to heat the chunk of iron without much difficulty, as the task was one that even novice blacksmiths could perform without much trouble. However, once she grabbed it with some tongs and lifted her hammer to shape the metal, she ran into some difficulty. It is simple to describe the process of striking metal with the right strength, but when one has to moderate their own power in such a situation, difficulties naturally arise.

Unlike her first formation array and talisman, her first dagger was misshapen and obviously skewed.

“I see…” Yi Wei muttered, looking closely at the hot piece of metal in her hand, “I can see exactly where I went wrong. This… it’s still hot, isn’t it?”

“It is. I wouldn’t have recommended you to pick it up yet, but you have a surprising resistance to heat.”

“That is because I’m not a wood cultivator. They’re flammable.”

“Oh? You noticed that too? No-one in the Ning family believed me, but…”

“Are metal cultivators vulnerable to water?”

“Hmm…” Ning Guanting thought about it for a minute, “I’ve not noticed such a thing. However, water has been successful at calming fire cultivators, so…”

“…”

“…”

“Um. Are you going to teach me now?”

“Sure. You’ve just distracted me with a fun topic. What’s the first thing you want to learn to make?”

“If I’m not going to be able to use weapons, then any piece of armour will do,” Yi Wei decided, glancing out the window to find that the injured men were taken away, leaving behind only the small, scalding crater, “Greaves or bracers should be the simplest to make.”

“Then we will begin with bracers. Seeing as you fight with your upper body, they’re more important for you,“ the blacksmith decided, and stepped up to the forge.