Paragon of Sin

Chapter 1699: Three out of Eight

The Minor Elysium's daring blazingly fiery red colors stood out at the edge of the Prosperous Union Major Region, exuding an aura of blistering heat that emulated Solar Stars from its atmospheric formation, while the inside was comfortably cool with refreshing air and lenient gravity.

Shui Fengbao currently piloted the Minor Elysium as Yao Houyi was performing sequence checks on the formations and arrays of the ship to ensure all was functioning. Helping him was Ming Shuifeng holding a perfectly spherical orb containing the vague shadowy silhouette of an aquatic beast. She would let the orb float from time to time as she executed a set of hand-seals as her eyes released golden light to inspect certain regions with a diligent expression.

Excessively drinking at the edge of the ship, leaning against the railing with a carefree air and an air of elegance and addiction, Young Master Shang excitedly slurred slightly to Tuo Bihan. The middle-aged Ascendant listened attentively as Young Master Shang talked. The gargantuan sword wrapped in bandages on his back pulsated from time to time with a strange sound as if it was similarly agreeing and consciousness of Young Master Shang's words.

Su Mei sat cross-legged with her eyes closed beside Shui Fengbao with Xiao Bai lying down behind her, feigning sleep as his bulging belly indicated that it had recently consumed quite a bit of hard-to-digest materials. They both cultivated intensely in their own way, and it was clear that Su Mei's hardworking and collected nature had positively rubbed off on Xiao Bai.

Qing Qiumu and Yue Songli were inseparable as Dakarai stayed nestled between Yue Songli's enticing and alluring mountains as if it were his domain. The two girls talked often and shared many experiences. It was uncertain whether Wei Wuyin's recent distance was hoping for this result as Yue Songli's introverted nature was slowly being chipped away, and she involved herself in social matters more confidently. Meanwhile, Qing Qiumu's introverted and distrusting attitude subtly developed by her own horrific experiences was being worn down by Yue Songli.

The two personalities meshed well. One was warm, motherly, and patient while being deeply loyal to her friends. It was hard not to trust Qing Qiumu. The other was cool, self-contained, and inspiring. They both suffered similar experiences on different scales and while they never truly spoke about their experiences to each other, an unspoken bond and understanding had inevitably formed.

Cao Cuifen was older and was fully enjoying the experience of no longer holding the weight of her destiny and the destiny of others on her shoulders. Her newfound freedom and aspirations had invigorated her personality, and despite her advanced age of tens of thousands of years, she acted closer to a young, prominent member of royalty, especially with Grey Rose and Wei Wuyin's status as the Neo-Dawn Alchemic Saint.

She was capable of negotiating with Khonshu and selflessly at that. With Grey Rose's strength as a Mystic Overlord, and her easily recognized as a maidservant, not a single person had looked down on her beyond the galaxies even if her status as Wei Wuyin's wife was unknown. While growing up, she experienced untold amounts of struggles, living through the darkest age, and having to support her last remaining clan member despite her dream of accomplishing feats of a true cultivator, not an alchemist.

The most important was that…she was no longer excessively tense at all times, ready to fight with her life on the line. She felt…safe. After Wei Wuyin's adventurers across the galaxies, such as handling the threat of Teng Jiangwen, cowing four Mystic Overlord level rulers on a galactic scale, easily overcoming the rampant dangers of the White Abyss, taking down Enlightened Sage Springfield, handling the Sky Heart Galaxy's tyrannical beasts, and then defeating the eight Sages, not to mention—conquering three whole galaxies!

If she didn't feel safe while near him, she wouldn't ever feel safe.

Grey Rose was quietly roaring with happiness. Her sly decision to become Cao Cuifen's maidservant was the greatest decision of her life. Not only had her originally shaky cultivation foundation been fixed to a large extent, but she had access to Cao Cuifen, who had active access to the ridiculously wealthy and powerful Wei Wuyin. While she certainly wouldn't have been able to become a concubine, her status as a maidservant to one of the Neo-Dawn Alchemic Saint's wives was enough to place her firmly above Sages.

She constantly recalled the respectful manner in which the Sages of the Resolute Dusk Galaxy replied to her or Cao Cuifen, and she felt elevated to the highest of heavens. She hadn't even received such a reaction when she ruled over her own portion of the galaxy. Many of her faction members would subconsciously flash looks of disdain, contempt, hatred, and anger. But she couldn't exactly blame them…

Regardless, all of that was in the past. She now had a great future ahead of her!

While all this was going on, Wei Si, who could often be found lagging behind the Qing and Yue duo, was missing at this moment, and so was Zuhei. After observing Wei Wuyin's fight with the Sages, getting what essentially was first-row seats to a spectacular high-level battle, they had seemingly disappeared.

"Hm?" Shui Fengbao's senses were interconnected to the Minor Elysium's radar formations, and he immediately noted an incoming aura signature. He looked outward curiously and discovered a beautiful Void Vessel decorated in white and green, exuding a richly refined light that trailed behind it gorgeously.

This was the Void Vessel known as the Hidden Mirage for the one-and-only Sage Imentet, ruler of the Hidden Desert Major Region. When the Hidden Mirage arrived beside the Minor Elysium, Imentet and Luo Ning's spiritual image was projected outwards to those on board.

Luo Ning looked a little apologetic as she found Su Mei after failing to find Wei Wuyin. Before she could even explain herself, Su Mei calmly spoke with her eyes remaining closed:

"Lord Wei has given his approval."

Luo Ning's eyes brightened as she was relieved. Wei Wuyin accepting Imentet's presence was like a beloved father giving their direct approval in her heart to be with her love, it was of paramount importance.

"Hmph!" Imentet coldly snorted. Seeking approval from someone else to accompany her lover was juvenile, but she wouldn't dare voice her thoughts given Wei Wuyin's strength and status in Luo Ning's heart. She learned a little about Luo Ning during these past few days and knew that Luo Ning had gone from a failed alchemist to a prodigious alchemist of outstanding skill and repute due to Wei Wuyin's actions. If she discounted or diminished that, she would truly be stupid.

Regardless, she was coming along if Luo Ning was going to venture out into the dangerous Dark Void. While the others were concerned about her life, when they learned that Wei Wuyin would be present, and Luo Ning was his trusted subordinate, the other Sages didn't have much of a reason to argue.

In fact, they wanted her to go. If she found any opportunity to excavate her potential and sense her True Soul, they could all galvanize that opportunity to ascend. There was a misconception regarding their cultivation art by those in the know, and that was that they shared each other's cultivation base. The truth was that they shared the purest form of foundational energy and essence, but there were massive differences between them as they could change the energy type between them.

For example, Hathor had larger reserves of Mystic Force than the others while Pakhet and Nepit, respectively, had greater forms of Physical Energy and Spiritual Energy. Meanwhile, comprehension wasn't shared.

But that foundation made it so they had a significantly higher chance of assailing the next tribulation gate successfully, and even had ways to prevent death upon failure like using Mystic Origin Liquid, but by relying on the others. This significantly increased their chances of finding success in their cultivation, and it showed as all eight had reached the True Sage Phase, and they had incredible incentives to ensure the safety of the others to prevent their cultivation art from being broken.

A guaranteed seven other powerful allies in the path of cultivation all with desires to use you to further their cultivation. It was a recipe for success.

The differences of cultivations in the Laws were a notable disparity between each of them, with some yet having to manifest a Minor Authority and Pakhet reaching the legendary Major Authority by herself.

However, this reliance negatively showed itself as they hadn't left their galaxy due to the urging of the others knowing how dangerous the Dark Void and exploring it was. This inevitably led to them being scammed by the Utmost Purity Galaxy numerous times as they had to rely on Sage River Oasis for everything, and while she was a Sage, she wasn't particularly powerful or had much authority despite being a Junior Worldly Saint Alchemist.

In the Utmost Purity Galaxy, a Junior Worldly Saint Alchemist was not too important, especially in matters of the Mystic-World stage, which involved the Worldly Saint, Heavenly Saint, Ascended Saint, and True Sage Phases. Despite her cultivation base, she could only effectively influence Worldly Saints and maybe Heavenly Saints with her products.

Given the circumstances and how plentiful the resources of the Resolute Dusk Galaxy were, formerly the No-Name Galaxy, how could they not take advantage of a newer Worldly Saint Alchemist? They would be fools not to. After all, Alchemists already greatly overcharge their products, largely justifying and attributing the outrageous price discrepancy between time lost and effort spent.

Back in the Everlore Starfield's Myriad Monarch Sect and the Four Extreme Pavilion in the Elementus Domain, Wei Wuyin had seen first-hand the vast differences in prices. For example, some products cost only a few essence stones to make yet cost tens of thousands of essence stones at the low-quality. There was a reason why successful Alchemists were always insanely rich, regardless of where you go.

The most depressing development was the selling of lineages that were almost complete copies of each other for expensive prices, or inferior lineages that were mostly empty titles such as the Heavenly Saint Alchemist lineage that Sage River Oasis had brought back, yet its main product, a Mystic-Heaven grade product, was of equal effect to a high-tier, Mystic-World grade product!

Moreover, Sage River Oasis wasn't just weaker than the average Sage, she was also one of those false Worldly Saint Alchemists, who also created her own inferior lineage. Her status could only be imagined.

Luo Ning thanked Su Mei before dissipating her spiritual image. Imentet followed with a glare at the Minor Elysium without looking at anyone in particular. They returned to their private quarters, their bodies covered in thin fabric and the fragrant floral scent permeated the air.

Luo Ning smiled at the silently fuming, cutely pouting Imentet.

"Oh stop it. His Majesty didn't hurt you then."

"Hmph!" Imentet's lips pursued tightly, reluctant to admit that she was dominated and mercifully spared by Wei Wuyin. Only after Luo Ning began to besiege her with small kisses did she calm down, her heart relaxing as warmth surged in her body.

"Fine!"

A faint ripple emerged on the deck of the Minor Elysium to alert the others of an incoming arrival. Su Mei's eyes opened as the rest had their eyes drawn to the location of the ripple. Young Master Shang drank some more as his eyes brightened.

He had never thought that his daring adventure to both warn her sister's future lover as a thanks for saving her would end up becoming an epic tale of the ages of a single man and his beautiful wives traversing the stars, conquering galaxies, and exploring the depths of the mysterious and unknown. He would still have his heart race when he thought about the events in the White Abyss.

He went from an insignificant no-name to an absurdly talented monster in his eyes. Not only was he a Worldly Saint Alchemist of unprecedented skills, who once alluded to his achievement of nearing the Heavenly Saint Alchemist, but he was absurdly lucky. Not only had he found an Edict Seed of Law but a Shard of Heaven!

If that was all, that would be fine, but his strength could rival an Enlightened Sage before he ascended. Then, he took down eight Sages wielding Heavenly Treasures, none of which was below average or average by any standards given their shared cultivation art!

What a Brother-in-law!

From the ripple, two figures walked out. They were Pakhet and Wei Xiaotian, the latter of which was in a black and dark green lace-up closure blazer with a loose collar and a neatly folded handkerchief in a front pocket. She took on a style of her own, especially her chaotic yet elegant shoulder-length hair that bobbed up and down. With those large, round glasses with a gold frame on her face, she looked two parts intelligent and one part heavenly.

Her beauty was as exceptionally unearthly as Wei Wuyin's looks, like they were two sides of the same coin. One feminine and the other masculine. One yin and the other yang. Her appearance almost overshadowed Pakhet, who was fiercely beautiful with a slender, form-fitting outfit that accentuated her immaculate form of beauty and martial strength.

Wei Xiaotian smiled kindly at Qing Qiumu and Yue Songli. She didn't hesitate to waltz over, leaving Pakhet to her own devices. The lioness looked around before finding Su Mei and Xiao Bai. Her interest was poked as she saw the majestic presence of a cultivating pegasus. She walked right on up to Xiao Bai, causing the winged horse to open its eyes and stare at her back curiously.

Before anything could happen, Wei Wuyin's voice echoed throughout the Minor Elysium, and even reached Hidden Wind.

"I'll be there in a few seconds," he said as Ming Shufeng and Yao Huoyi finished their surveying of the ship. This was their third time checking the ship with an extensive checklist.

A Void Portal manifested on the deck.

Three figures walked out. One of them was Wei Wuyin. The others?

Sage Nepit and Sage Nepri!

Four out of the ten Sages were coming to the Utmost Purity Galaxy!