Paragon of Sin

Three days had passed since Wei Wuyin had arrived at the Royal Palace Grounds, given his own courtyard. He sat quietly as essence stones were being rapidly drained by his externalized Divine Spirits. Beneath his feet, pale-grey dust gathered into a pile. From the size of this pile, an exceptional amount of essence stones were consumed. 

He came to the clear realization that his Alchemic Heart and Draconic Heart were strange oddities of cultivation. One of them belonged to his mind, situated in his Sea of Consciousness, while the other was his beating heart. And they required their pure essence to be delivered to them, unable to remain externalized for longer than a few seconds. As a result of this, his two Divine Spirits would absorb the essence stones rapidly and bring the essence to them like a mother brings worms to their chicks. Perhaps when they grew stronger, this would change.

Fortunately, his Divine Spirits had an inseparable connection with his mind and body, allowing them to enter his sea of consciousness and fleshy heart without any hindrance. The transference was also swift, and the refinement was unbelievably fast. 

He had already reached the Sixth Stage of Qi/Blood Condensation Realm thanks to the Yin-Yang God Sphere's pure yin-yang energies. With that, his cultivation base had abruptly spiked once more. 

Now, he was trying to refine another heap of essence stones to refine his qi to their limits. The only aspect he was curious about was whether the Eighth Phase, Infused Spirituality, would occur automatically or not with these two.

Before, his Hearts were 'Divine' which meant the spirits had thoroughly integrated with their respective cores long before. He wasn't sure if the Alchemic Heart, an ethereal existence, and the Draconic Heart, a physical existence, would remain the same.

They were unique, but he still wasn't sure.

In truth, his worries were unfounded. His Spirits and Hearts shared thoughts and comprehensions, even if he wanted to manually cultivate them to the Eighth Phase, it was unnecessary. They already knew how.

The moment they reached the Seventh Phase, the Eighth Phase would occur even if he was unconscious or lost all of his memory once more. This was because his Hearts/Spirits held a sort of independence in their actions. 

He had long noticed this odd characteristic. He didn't know if all spirits formed from the soul had these traits, but they were eccentric and wondrous. They were sentient, self-aware, and conscious. They could even undergo hibernation or refuse to reveal themselves if they wanted, such as when he became another 'self'.

The only thing that left him assured was that their lives were linked, so they obeyed him obediently without question. While saying this, they also helped him with things by communicating with him.

For example, the corpse of Hu Jiwei.

He looked towards the remnant clothing of Hu Jiwei. 

His eyes twitched strangely.

While his Draconic Heart couldn't externalize for long, when it did, it devoured this corpse's enriched blood completely. As for his Alchemic Heart, it entered the dead sea of consciousness of the corpse, the one refined by Qi Essence, and likely devoured that too.

The rest of it was refined and devoured by the Divine Spirits. It was a brutal sight, turning the corpse into dust. However, he came to an understanding that even the flesh and bones of a Godking was a cultivation resource. They held inherent traces of qi essence motes energy that those spirits loved.

In fact, he also came to an understanding as well. Hu Jiwei had three Qi Essence motes in his body. While his Spirit of Qi dissipated, his Qi Essence motes remained.

He realized it because the two spirits went separate ways, each took a single mote of Qi Essence, and fought fiercely over the third. He had to interfere otherwise they could've truly gone to blows. He decided to give it to the Spirit of Qi that held seniority: Divine Spirit of Elemental Qi. 

With this, they peacefully refined those motes of qi essence for themselves. Unfortunately, neither formed a single qi essence. 

He felt woeful. 

Only then did he truly realize and determine that he needed far more resources than others. Even Hu Jiwei's two qi essences were unable to produce one for him.

Just as he was lamenting at his fate, his Alchemic Heart and Draconic Heart simultaneously reached the Seventh Phase, Sublime Qi. The phenomenon emerged, but Wei Wuyin focused his mind elsewhere.

Shruun!

Just as he expected!

No, just as he hoped!

They were currently merging spirit with core, infusing spirituality into energy, birthing spiritual energy which created spiritual qi. With this, his fleshy body, spiritual sense, and alchemic talents will rise to an entirely new level!

He had the confidence to refine seventh-grade alchemical products right now! Just as he thought about that, his eyes lit up as he pulled his perception away and searched his three-layered storage ring. 

He used his spiritual sense to try to enter the third layer, but he still failed! However, he wasn't frustrated, he immediately found the various herbs in his ring stored from the Beast-Taming Sect and his dealings with Qin Feng, the Jade Lotus Sect Godlord. Pulling out a cauldron, he smiled.

He was going to stabilize his cultivation base and concoct a seventh-grade pill! In the law of alchemy, products suited for certain phases were far, far, far more effective on those weaker.

The sixth-grade products were suitable for Godkings and below, but seventh-grade products were suitable for the realm beyond—Astral Core Realm.

If he used an Astral Core Realm suited pill for his cultivation, how far would he reach?! He now felt that his memory loss was an absolute blessing in more ways than one. The talent revealed and skills gained from the Eden Earth Sect had allowed him to embrace the Dao of Alchemy. If he can become a King Alchemist, he had the hope to swiftly pulverize the early-stages of the Astral Core Realm!

As a wielder of the Alchemic Heart, no, now Alchemic Spirit of Eden Qi, he was a prodigy among prodigies! 

Actually, that's an exaggeration. 

He could be considered a math prodigy with a decked-out calculator thanks to his Alchemic Qi, while others were just math prodigies forced to think. In some ways, he was a cheater.

Thankfully, he already had a high-level of alchemic talent to begin with. The pill he was going to make was one of the few seventh-grade recipes of the Eden Earth Sect: Astral Dipper Fountain Pill! 

The materials weren't rare, but when seven of these ingredients are perfectly mixed and merged, the resulting reaction could help those at the Ninth Phase of Qi Condensation to ascend with an increased chance of seventy percent!

Fortunately, it was highly effective in condensing qi essence as well!! According to what the Eden Earth Sect Master informed him, it could create seven motes of qi essence per pill! 

Perhaps this would only give him one or two, but he didn't care. He could easily attempt to make hundreds because the ingredients weren't that rare, and he had enough for tens of thousands thanks to the Beast-Taming Sect and Hu Jiwei.

"The heavens don't like disproportionate gains! With seven slightly uncommon herbs, one could receive far too high of an increase! No wonder the Heavenly Daos don't like it, but because of its effectiveness in using what it births, I wonder if the Heavenly Daos secretly praises the creativity, therefore doesn't outlaw it." As he pondered this absolutely profound yet seemingly absurd question, he didn't realize he had touched upon the truth very few knew.

While it was more complex than that, it was also a very simplistic explanation of the truth.

He waited for his Alchemic Spirit and Draconic Spirit to settle. He could feel his physical energies and bloodline become richer, purer, and more powerful. His flesh and bones, all things influenced by his blood, were jumping in quality as a result. 

He also felt that his mind was clearer. Eden Qi was miraculously profound and a part of the Mind Dao. It governed self-awareness and various other profound intricacies he still had yet to understand, but his sea of consciousness was expanded and strengthened. 

He could tell that his Alchemic Spirit benefitted absorbing a dead man's sea of consciousness. It had grown sturdier and purer, but he still didn't know how that was the case.

He was wildly ignorant of the intricacies and qualities of a Mind Qi. They weren't like Material Qi, like Scarlet, Jade, or Wind. They also weren't like Ethereal Qi that relied on intent and belief, such as Saber, Holy, or Battle. It interacted with the world differently as well.

He sighed. Regardless, it still was a form of Metaphysical Qi, and can become energy that can interact with the world. It can hold elemental qualities, so he still felt somewhat lost whenever he tried to figure out its profoundities.

Shaking his head of those thoughts, he started to use essence stones to replace his non-spiritually sublime qi & blood. Unlike before, he wasn't going for a full overhaul, that'll take time, but just enough to concoct pills.

An hour later, he smiled. "Let's begin!"

-----

In the central area, at a well-known restaurant frequented by many, two individuals were quietly eating. Next to them, three gentlemen were speaking with a spiritual spell warding their words. Unbeknownst to them that the two could hear their every word, they spoke without restraint.

"Did you hear? Prince Lei will be crowned Crown Prince! How wild. I always thought it would be Prince Zhen."

"Yeah! Me too! While he was a little vicious and gave off a fierce aura, he always felt stable and his cultivation base was strong!" One of them said.

"Yeah, but now I feel bad for him." One of them lamented.

"Why?"

"Well, King Wu is going to have Prince Zhen's woman, Godlord Lin, the one he's been after since day one, marry Prince Lei. It is a straight slap in the face."

"What?!" 

"Yes! Not only that, I heard the Royal Commander is backing Prince Lei's ascension and even forcing Godlord Lin to marry him. While it is disgusting, that's the perks of being royalty! Hehe, the crown and a beauty! Truly enviable!"

The men continued their conversation on a variety of topics, unbeknownst that a man nearby had his killing intent provoked, barely containing his ferocious rage. 

He abruptly stood up, paid the bill, and left. The woman beside him, who wore a veil concealing her features, followed calmly. When they arrived outside, the young man's eyes were fixated on the Royal Palace, his fists clenched enough to induce popping sounds.

The young woman reached out with her jade-like hand but halted. In the end, she just let him feel the emotions he should feel. 

-----

While this event happened, Prince Zhen was calmly reading in his study, unbeknownst that a calamity had been drawn to the Imperial Clan by forces beyond his comprehension.