Paragon of Sin

Chapter 1700: Seeking Fortune (1)

The appearance of Nepri and Nepit, the two Dao Companion Sages, was an unexpected development. Imentet and Pakhet specifically observed Nepit with their Spiritual Senses. Naturally, they were curious about her current condition. She had sustained extensive injury during the conflict with Teng Jiangwen while controlling the God Cage of Eight Directions Array, and she had taken a backseat since.

They immediately sensed she was still injured and her complexion and aura were only artificially healthy, a mere facade. Her foundation had been damaged to an extent, and foundational damage of one's cultivation base wasn't so easily remedied without excessive resources and a precious environment for those at their level. Pakhet was an example of premium recovery conditions.

Nepit was one of the two outliers of Sages within the galaxy; her current accomplishments were largely attributed to Nepri's love and Dao Cultivation. Despite Nepit's investment and history of sacrifice, Nepit and Nepri had a series of arguments that fragmented their Major Region in the past, and no one was sure of their current relationship standings. Witnessing them together was something that Imentet and Pakhet hadn't seen in nearly twelve thousand years. For her to be here with him was quite an event.

"What's wrong?" Luo Ning noticed Imentet's shift in attention.

Imentet pouted, mumbling an indistinguishable bit of intelligible nonsense, but a slender finger pulling on her chin brought her back to reality. Luo Ning repeated her question.

"Nothing. Just…" she paused briefly before continuing with a frustrated light glinting in her eyes, "Nepit is here; while she's given certain responsibilities that were unanimously voted on by the Major and Minor Regions, I don't like her."

Luo Ning curiously asked, "Why?"

Imentet originally wasn't someone to gossip or talk behind someone's back, but divulging her emotions and thoughts to her partner was out of line in her mind.

"She was all lovey-dovey, attached to the hip, the very image of the most pleasant Dao Companion you could imagine, but the moment she became a True Sage, her attitude changed and ambitions exploded. One of the reasons why we were taken advantage of by the Utmost Purity Galaxy's greedy alchemists was her convincing Nepri to heavily lobby for a Mystic-Heaven Alchemical Lineage despite us having no suitable candidates.

"We reluctantly agreed in the end as a way to prepare for the future despite the egregious price, but she and River Oasis failed to get a relevant lineage. After all, an inferior lineage might be able to produce a Heavenly Saint Alchemist, but they would be inherently inferior to most Exalted Worldly Saint Alchemists. Even then, the difficulty and resources were too great to reliably create high-level alchemists while the chances of success were incredibly low." Imentet did not conceal her vexation of the situation.

"And she carved out her own territory to support her cultivation, but when she realized that we had rules in place that prevented her ambitions, she got into a huge argument and set an ultimatum. Nepri isn't one to easily fold to such things, but after a long, grueling period of her obnoxious and petulant antics, he gave her 60% of his territory and made great sacrifices to expand her territory. What type of bullshit is that? Despite all that, she had avoided him for over ten thousand years. She's an ambitious troublemaker. The worst type."

"..." Luo Ning silently processed all this. Imentet likely left out some details, but she could understand why Imentet, someone who was soul-linked to Nepri, wouldn't have the greatest feelings for the Sage. She consoled her with a soft caress, and they began to talk more.

Back on the Minor Elysium, Nepit and Nepri were side-by-side, following behind Wei Wuyin.

"Have all the necessary checks been completed?" Wei Wuyin asked Shui Fengbao.

"All formations, arrays, and structural integrity have been triple-inspected at full functionality," Shui Fengbao reported diligently and respectfully.

Wei Wuyin acknowledged with a slight nod, "Our destination is the Southwestern Outskirts of the Galactic Boundary."

Shui Fengbao reacted swiftly with a nod and took control over the Minor Elysium in full, activating its propulsion formations as pulses of fiery energy flared as it began to move. The ship had stability formations, so besides the faint signs of rumbling brought about by the initial inertia of movement, the ride was extremely smooth.

Hidden Wind followed behind. Young Master Shang gave the two Sages a curious look. Each stop came with new additions to the crew. They left the White Abyssal Galaxy with Grey Rose, a Mystic Overlord. Then, they left the Sky Heart Galaxy with that aquatic beast that Ming Shufeng carried and Dakarai, the hyena that was nestled between Yue Songli's great mountains.

Now, four Sages!

Wei Wuyin was building a retinue of powerful beings as he traveled the stars!

"World-Saint Neo-Dawn," Nepit called out.

Wei Wuyin looked over at the approaching Sage whose tone was rife with cautious respect.

"How long will the journey to the Utmost Purity Galaxy take?" She asked. The ship's current speed was extremely slow in her eyes, especially when piloted by Shui Fengbao. His cultivation was too low to make full use of the formations of the Minor Elysium.

She wasn't the only one curious about this. Pakhet and Nepri were silently speculating the travel time as they stared at the Dark Void with faintly glowing eyes. The typical estimation for a trip by Sage River Oasis was roughly 11 to 13 years to the Utmost Purity Galaxy. Moreover, the path there wasn't cleared or anything, so the dangers were unpredictable and ever-developing with Void Creatures and Void Phenomena that were hazardous to even Sages.

They were unaware of the quality of the Minor Elysium. A trip to the Utmost Purity Galaxy from the Resolute Dusk Galaxy or vice versa would take roughly 11 to 13 months given its defensive formations and speed that could ignore the majority of dangers, if piloted by a Sage on the level of Teng Jiangwen without detours. This was already an incredibly fast achievement.

"Hm?" Wei Wuyin smiled. "Should take no more than… seventeen minutes."

"Seventeen minutes?!" The Sages were stunned, disbelief ravaging their facial expressions. Did they perhaps mishear?

Wei Wuyin nodded to confirm, "Seventeen minutes is a generous estimate." The others on the ship weren't shaken in the slightest by Wei Wuyin's words. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that those from the Onestar Galaxy's Ancient Sealed Region were spoiled by the absurd ease of travel that a True Void Dragon brought to the table.

To traverse the stars in literal minutes was something unbelievable to begin with!

Ming Shufeng and Yao Houyi came back to the main deck, and the former's eyes brightened as she found Wei Wuyin. Since arriving in the Resolute Dusk Galaxy, Wei Wuyin had been abnormally elusive. She hated that she couldn't advise him during his conquest of another galaxy, feeling like she missed an opportunity.

She didn't hesitate to make her way toward Wei Wuyin. She then started to tell Wei Wuyin about some of the fortunes she deduced aligned with the route from the Resolute Dusk Galaxy and the Utmost Purity Galaxy. Like before, she wanted to showcase her usefulness when it came to extracting value from the world and benefiting him.

Yao Houyi assisted Shui Fengbao as a co-pilot allowing Su Mei to focus wholeheartedly on her cultivation while Sage Pakhet quietly parked herself next to Xiao Bai and kept staring at him. Her eyes were intense. It was hard to tell if she was in a state of great wonder or hunger.

Xiao Bai genuinely didn't care about her and gave a puff here and there. With Su Mei and Wei Wuyin here, especially the latter, he couldn't care less if she wanted to eat a chunk of his flesh. She could dream about it all she wanted.

Wei Wuyin listened to Ming Shufeng. Most of her fortune was vague. For example, there was a rogue planet that was a suitable planetary mine of an uncertain resource but was certainly rare. Another was a region of space that might lead to an ancient ruin of a former Secret Realm. She listed quite a few ambiguous potentials for fortune.

"We'll extend our trip by a few days," Wei Wuyin informed the crew. He was an Exploitative Blessed, and with his Karmic Luck Value zeroed out, he could only rely on Ming Shufeng to seek fortune like before. He didn't dare underestimate it either as he had found the Star Void Liquid and an Edict Seed.

Seeing her excitedly tell him was also a sign that she had exhausted a considerable amount of lifespan to retrieve these pieces of information. He handed her a few pseudo-pills containing Eden's unrefined lifeforce to compensate her. The anxiety she felt dissipated after receiving the pills. Her divinations were costly, so if Wei Wuyin dismissed her proactive actions and hadn't compensated her, she would have suffered a significant loss.

"A few days?" Nepri frowned, but he didn't argue. He was approached unexpectedly by Wei Wuyin a few hours ago and given an offer to accompany them to the Utmost Purity Galaxy. In exchange for certain benefits, he would act as a temporary Dao Protector for a specific individual on the ship. Sage Nepit had tagged along after he had informed her of his decision to accept the offer. This had surprised him as she never responded to his spiritual transmissions directly since their separation, only through intermediaries.

Wei Wuyin took Su Mei aside with Ming Shufeng, and they plotted a course through the stars. Four locations of potential fortune were viable in their eyes after discussion.

They soon arrived at the Southwestern Outskirts of the Resolute Dusk Galaxy's Galactic Boundary. They breached the Galactic Shell with a tremble and boom, and they flew into the Galactic Dark Void that was rife with dangers. Shui Fengbao lowered their speed while traveling forward.

The Sages on board were all confused.

Then, Wei Wuyin pressed his hand forward with a casual air. This was the first time he was using his Void Portal Creation: Galactic-Range since reaching the Mystic Ascendant Realm and the true First Level of the Mark of Mystic Myth.

The Sages' eyes all widened as a gigantic Void Portal conjured through the Void leading to a dark unknown. They thought it was a Void Phenomena and actively began circulating their Mystic Auras. Wei Wuyin thought for a moment, and then he informed spiritually about the Void Portals. Only then did they calm down, their hearts racing as the ship entered the Void Portal.

The Hidden Wind only halted briefly as Imentet had never seen such a massive Void Portal before, conjured without a Void Gate or similar formation. Following the Minor Elysium, the two ships vanished from this portion of space.

When the Void Portal vanished with an abrupt collapse, only the silent Resolute Dusk Galaxy remained.

The first location was the rogue planet that was hurtling across the Dark Void. It was infested by hundreds of thousands of Void Creatures that resembled wasps with a forked stinger that dripped with an acidic liquid that melted anything it touched. They were consuming the rogue planet with their frayed mandibles and gigantic sizes that reached tens of thousands of meters in height. They were a horrific sight.

Wei Wuyin was initially going to send Tuo Bihan and Yao Houyi to take care of them, but after sensing their strength, he didn't need to say anything before Pakhet rushed forward with the grace of a predator, slaughtering them all. She regarded this as 'stretching her muscles'.

Each of these Void Wasps had the strength of a World Emperor, but before a Sage with a Minor Law, they weren't enough for a full workout even as a coordinated swarm. The rogue planet only had Mystic-Earth graded ore, and most of it had been devoured by the wasps. Ming Shufeng was a little embarrassed.

Wei Wuyin had Shui Fengbao cleanse the planet with fire before sealing it into a Void Crystal, shrinking it for later. The sight of Wei Wuyin shrinking an entire planet into a finger-sized crystal was once again shocking to the Sages, especially the ease with which he did so. While they all had Internal Worlds, they didn't dare to carelessly store potentially volatile materials within themselves.

That's why sealed containers and Saint Rings existed.

Exiting out of the Void Portal, the next location was said by Ming Shufeng to be the location of fortune, but it was too vague besides an approximate region. When they arrived, the Sages had been pumped with anticipation. After all, they were treasure hunting and Dark Void delving while portaling!

This was a novel feeling!

But the moment they exited the Void Portal, their Spirits, Souls, and hairs were all stimulated by a sensation of spine-chilling deadly crisis! Without any hesitation, Pakhet, Nepri, and Imentet conjured a tri-coordinated protective Mystic Ward around themselves!