Paragon of Sin

Woosh!

Wei Wuyin's body was like scorched earth, black as night and burnt beyond recognition. As he plummeted to the eighth level, the intense heat and blazing fire energies turned his enhanced flesh into barbeque. His eyes were shut, and sealed, melted at their ends to his face. His hair was incinerated, and his clothing was vaporized.

The damage was extensive, and his consciousness only lasted for a few seconds after his devastating gamble to open up a pathway to the dark void beyond the sky. Completely unconscious, he fell powerlessly and his body started to burn even greater from the increasing velocity of his fall. 

Cultivators were oftentimes far, far heavier than their average, and Wei Wuyin's body could not only be considered as heavier, but denser, and more sturdy as well. He fell like a meteor becoming a shooting star, streaking through the atmospheric layers of the planet, and he picked up a shocking amount of speed on his descent.

At the moment, those below might see a tiny meteor that resembled burning fire approaching. They might gawk, stare, or believe it could grant them a wish, but it was merely Wei Wuyin! 

"..." While Wei Wuyin remained unconscious, he was unable to use his qi to help stabilize his body, heal, or take any sort of action. But a shocking event occurred! From his glabella, a surge of rainbow-colored light erupted in its brilliance. It started to send itself throughout his body, reaching his heart, and then his dantian.

As it touched his heart, an ancient roar resounded that dispersed the fire that wreathed across Wei Wuyin's body, like an instant fire extinguisher. In a single blink of an eye, Wei Wuyin's body that was burnt to the point that even his mother might not recognize him was fully revealed! He was truly like burnt, overly crusted toast. His skin had been seared and blackened to its limits, and his flesh had a hard texture, flaked and jagged.

The light reached his dantian, and saber energies exploded! The faint image of a saber encapsulated his entire body and controlled his body, causing its descent to slow down considerably despite the terrifying momentum. Then, wind, water, and ice energies started to gather and intrude into the saber image, and entered his body.

While he wasn't healed, his body's temperature cooled down considerably and so did the surroundings. If Wei Wuyin was awake, he would be startled! His Natal Souls were acting on their own! While they had done so before, such as to snag an alchemical product, he didn't think they had such levels of autonomy! They controlled their innate energies and acted with their own will!

This was not the standard ability of a Natal Soul. In fact, if this was told to others, they might not even believe it. Natal Souls were like secondary limbs that acted as controllers for one's energies, but it was only driven forth by their mental commands. They could not take action themselves, and weren't sentient existences that could communicate or interact of their own free will.

Upon his heart, the Mark of Eden flashed with resplendent green light! In a blink of an eye, Wei Wuyin's entire body, every orifice and every cell was integrated with green light! This light was wood energies, unfathomably pure and refined wood energies that originated from the Tree of Eden himself!

In Wei Wuyin's sea of consciousness, his Alchemic Natal Soul trembled in shock and surprise. It peered into the mark and it released a faint sound of realization and satisfaction. It was as if it was praising and saying: "At least he isn't an idiot." 

Indeed. 

Wei Wuyin never took action without two, three, maybe even four contingencies in place to ensure his survival. He had long since set-up plans to ensure his survival, not particularly for this event, and these plans took effect the moment his charred body returned to the seventh level! 

His body was engulfed in endless wood energies provided by the Mark of Eden, activated remotely by a strand of spiritual sense he left within it, to be triggered when he reached the seventh level.

The area above his sky palace started to brim endlessly with various elemental and spiritual energies! This was Wei Wuyin's remote activation Spiritual Formation! The elemental energies turned into a river of multicolored energy as it sped towards Wei Wuyin's falling body, wrapped it, and started to act as a moving bridge to bring him into the Sky Palace.

However, the Alchemic Natal Soul was deeply startled. It was a part of Wei Wuyin's sea of consciousness and aware of every one of his actions, even thoughts. When did he take this action and how come it wasn't aware of it? When it tried to investigate this matter, he was shocked to realize that Wei Wuyin's mind was split into two pieces, and one was completely sealed off.

It had no access to this secondary mind!

Did Wei Wuyin seal off the mind connected to it and…

As this thought rumbled through the Alchemic Natal Soul, it realized why. It quivered with a tinge of pride and a little fear. After all, it realized that there were things it was unaware of!

Wei Wuyin wasn't a fool who simply accepted the unknown as a benefit. His Natal Souls were abnormal. This was an easily deduced fact from the moment they acted out before. Moreover, he had one that resided in his sea of consciousness and located closely to his Mind's Eye. He never liked having someone privy to his every thought and devised a method using his second mind that had been created during the Haven Heart Qi Method and sealed it personally, including its memories after the Alchemic Natal Soul externalized for a brief period.

While this contingency had been revealed to the party he was wary of to begin with, he wouldn't mind. Bai Lin was a priority, and he would never simply have one card to play regarding any possibility that could threaten his life.

The Mark of Eden's wood energies were the most purest tonic of restoration and regrowth, causing his cells and flesh to rapidly restore and regrow. Before he even re-entered his Sky Palace, his nude form was completely recovered in all its well-endowed glory, including his black hair to its original state. This likely didn't even consume a millionth of the innate wood energies stored in Mark of Eden. It was truly a monstrous amount!

A spark reignited his consciousness!

His eyes shot open as he calmly inspected his surroundings. At this point, his four Natal Souls had already gone into a dormant state of complete inactivity, but Wei Wuyin's eyes flashed as he glanced at his physical body. He felt saber energies roaming across his body and within the air.

He took a deep breath and lifted his head upwards towards the sky. According to the records in the Beast-Taming Sect regarding the little of what they knew of the Awakening of a Phoenix, it took nine years to complete. He exhaled his held breath and relaxed his heart.

With a wave, his three-layered ring, which was one of the two items that remained undamaged on his body, was used to bring out a set of clothing and he properly refitted himself in another set of Extreme Creation Mountain's black robes.

Woosh!

A valiant figure garbed in black flashed over, and directly kneeled before Wei Wuyin. "Lord Wei…"

It was Su Mei. Wei Wuyin was somewhat taken aback by the kneel. He couldn't even react, but he didn't admonish or order her to do otherwise. He had always allowed her to act according to her own will, and if she decided to call him 'Lord Wei' or kneel with that will, he would never interfere. He respected her enough to not manage her mannerisms towards him. However, he felt something different about her, a nearly imperceptible change. 

He couldn't quite put his finger on it...

"Bai Lin won't return for nine years, likely. As for this…" Wei Wuyin's eyes once more lifted towards the Sky Layer and saw three gaping holes. While they were healing, it wasn't instantly and will likely take quite a while to do so naturally. 

The last hole, the one at the ninth level, was over thirty kilometers wide! He could still see the starry sky as if night had descended specifically in that area. The sunlight and unrefined astral essence would likely cause exceptional damage to the ninth level, eighth level, and seventh level if they seeped through.

He could already feel a cold aura that even eclipsed the burning heat he felt the moment he launched his last attack and penetrated it!

"We're likely going to have some trouble, so prepare for some guests." Wei Wuyin helplessly chuckled. 

Su Mei didn't bother asking about the details, simply glanced at the sky above, her eyes shimming with exceptional brightness, before she flashed away and started to make preparations for guests.

A few seconds after she left, several powerful spiritual senses descended!