Paragon of Sin

Chapter 1710: Gains & Losses

The brutal chaos slowly started to subside as the various competing factions' Void Vessels, the Serene Mountain Sect of the Prosperous Ruin Galaxy, the Seeking Profound Palace formerly of Treasured Vale Continent yet now migrated residents of the Utmost Purity Galaxy, the fleet of Exalted World-Saint Azureriver's personal vessels who reigned from the Zenith Creation Tower within the Utmost Purity Galaxy, the infamous Seventh Waves Pirates, and the well-connected Violet Breath, began to flee immediately.

The sudden introduction of four Sages and an unknown amount of enemies within the field of chaos had overturned this spontaneously held war within the void, and they urgently fled to suffer fewer losses. While many of their crew's gazes flashed with rage, vengeance, and hatred, they could only act in coordination to pilot their vessels away by activating their propulsion or spatial shifting formations.

The first to depart was the Seventh Waves Pirates. They were originally the most leisurely dealing with the injured Nepit, but when Imentet paired with her, they were the swiftest to run. As for Wei Yinan? Wei Yinan who? They were already gone.

As pirates, they understood the dangers of the world and could only pray that Wei Yinan's soul would find solace in the afterlife. They released a shockingly powerful repulsive pulse that sent Nepit flying, forcing Imentet to grab her, before they took that chance to flee at absurdly fast speeds. They turned into what seemed like literal light, bearing a strong resemblance to the Ever-Starlight Pellet.

The two Sages gawked in surprise. The speed exceeded even Imentet's speed, a Sage with the Minor Law of Light! They could only watch as they vanished into the Dark Void. Glancing at each other in stunned silence, they contemplated following the vessel in relentless pursuit, but if they had means to escape so advanced then they certainly had desperate measures that could threaten them.

Nepit cursed.

"Any organization, faction, or force that could fight for an Edict Seed in the chaotic region of the Dark Void isn't ordinary," Imentet consoled. Whether those words were for her or Nepit, not even she knew. As for Nepit, she wasn't cursing them, but cursing Nepri. She glared at him as if he had let them escape.

In truth, Nepri had the means to stall many of their formations, but Nepit had sent a sharp threatening glare as he tried to assist her earlier when she was having difficulty breaching their formation. While she didn't explicitly say to not assist, she was certainly implicitly warning him not to get involved. She only 'accepted' his Spiritual Presence hovering over her. Now, her heaps of complaints and a bellyful of fire due to her inability to gain anything was due to him? How unreasonable was that?

He held the urge to chuckle out of helplessness. In the end, the Violet Breath vessel and crew were dominated by his Spiritual Power, and he had more or less seized or crippled the vessel. Still, there were various escape mechanisms the crew was using. He didn't stop the weaker ones from departing, but those strong couldn't do so easily. Fortunately, they were smart, throwing away their spatial treasures and hurriedly escaping through various escape formations. Considering they were still active, it was abundantly clear to these experts that this Sage wasn't intending to wipe them out of existence.

Whether they were thankful or not was a different matter. Before they could all flee, Nepit and Imentet arrived. Those unlucky and slow few were slaughtered. Nepit snatched some of the spatial treasures left behind for him with a gleeful smile as her spoils. Imentet glanced at Nepri, who seemed to have gotten a little older, and not just due to his sacrifice of cultivation base to stabilize Nepit's cultivation.

He had purposefully left those spatial treasures floating in the void vessels after more or less clearing them out and dominating them for Nepit to retrieve. While his intentions seemed to have been ignored by his Dao Companion, as an outsider, she saw all of the little details.

Seeing this, she decided to just not. She left the complicated and frustrating duo, especially the unlikable woman of the pair, someone who she didn't really like in the depths of her heart, and observed the situation beyond.

The Seeking Profound Sect immediately activated their Void Leaping Formation and departed the moment Imentet and Nepit were freed. They feared the most that the four Sages would team up and slaughter them all, so how could they possibly wait after three had gathered?

Pakhet only destroyed two triangular-shaped Void Vessels of World-Saint Azureriver before Wei Si had returned. She decided to gather her gains from the two vessels and protect Wei Si, who was in possession of the Edict Seed. Her mercy allowed the remaining vessels to flee.

The war came to an end right then and there. There were numerous uninhabited Shell Worlds that were crumbling. They were isolated realms designed to be temporary battlefields or prisons, so their life expectancy was short to begin with. Despite their signs of crumbling spatial integrity, it would take several decades for those isolated realms to completely collapse without any external force.

The four Sages eventually gathered. Nepit had a slight pout on her lips, but her eyes contained a smile. She had gathered precious resources, especially given that the Violet Breath was a Void Hunter organization that had been on an extended excavation mission. They had several high and peak Mystic-World grade materials worth a mighty sum, not to mention the resources they had for the vessel itself.

Fortunately, she didn't push it too far and took Violet Breath's vessel itself. Imentet had an internal bet with herself to see if she would shamelessly claim it for herself, but she didn't. Nepri sealed the vessel before storing it in his Internal World for refinement later.

However, what Imentet was unaware of, was that Nepit already knew that Nepri would likely offer the vessel to her as a gift or a way to make amends after he had refined it. Given her injured and exhausted state, she couldn't refine the vessel easily, but a Spiritual Cultivator was adept at the refinement of formations and arrays. She would certainly leave the job to him for now.

If Imentet knew of her innermost assumptions of events, she would feel the urge to strangle Nepit.

"Is that the Edict Seed?" Nepit's eyes glowed as she observed Wei Si. The rampant desire in her eyes was particularly intense. One had to know that despite being the Dao Companion of a Sage who grasped the Law of Earth, she hasn't even reached the Sprouting Stage of her Seed of Law.

An Edict Seed was enough for Supreme Sages to eradicate entire cultivation civilizations, so the desire for one from a Sage was so incredibly high that Nepit's gaze was suffocating to observe.

Pakhet dangled Wei Si with her Mystic Power, "If you want, it's yours."

"...!" Nepit was stunned by the offer. Then, she felt a heavy stare from the side. She looked over and saw Nepri's firm facial expression. This was a face she was very familiar with, and her heart pounded fiercely.

"Stop teasing her," Imentet said casually as she inspected her internal condition. She had exhausted an enormous amount of her Mystic Power in that ink-black prison of the Seeking Profound Palace. She had suffered a loss overall. Not only was she unable to get anything from the Seventh Waves Pirates and Seeking Profound Palace, but the Violet Breath had mostly been claimed by Nepri and left behind for Nepit, so she only took a little of the soup remaining.

To think that out of the four of them, she would be the one to suffer a loss.

Pakhet shrugged, "If she wanted to court death, then I won't stop her." She couldn't fathom Nepit's thoughts or urges. Earlier, she had dared to negotiate with Wei Wuyin as if she had any leverage or speaking power. She genuinely considered Nepri's power as her own and seemingly saw her worth as two Sages instead of a weak and injured Sage. Even if she obtained the Edict Seed, why wouldn't Wei Wuyin take it from her?

Nepit shook out of her daydream, and her eyes flashed with a hint of vigilance. "Fine. At the very least, we'll be compensated for bringing the Edict Seed back."

Nepri internally sighed, but he didn't say anything.

Imentet coldly chuckled, "Compensated? We? Who? Sage Nepit, only Sage Pakhet completed his task. What did you contribute? Even I wouldn't be so shameless to ask for compensation. Especially after he allowed us to go freely to seek out fortune in this chaotic situation."

"..." Nepit furrowed her brows and looked to Nepit for a reaction. Nepit could only shake his head slightly to indicate that Imentet was right—they didn't contribute. They had a single goal, bring Wei Si to the most critical battlefield for the seed and then return the Edict Seed, and only Pakhet had done so from start to finish.

Neither she nor Nepri was under any delusion that they assisted in any capacity. How could Nepit think otherwise?

They turned to the chaotic field and realized they could barely sense the Minor Elysium. The tunnel that Wei Wuyin had hewn out for them had been closed, and they didn't dare to explore the depths of the chaos carelessly. They likely had to wait.

Pakhet kept Wei Si incredibly close, refusing to share any of her merits for this task as she excavated the gains from the vessels. There was another mini-vault of alchemical products and materials, and she was elated as she took everything valuable. If she could get Wei Wuyin to concoct a few products for her out of these materials for later, how great would that be? The other three could only stay vigilant as they counted their gains or recovered their Mystic Power with products creating temporary abodes in the Dark Void.

Four hours later.

Wei Wuyin had refined the entirety of the chaos field, transforming the droplets into fist-sized jewels of pure chaos. They were certainly treasures of uncertain value, but they definitely were not cheap. When they finally freed themselves of the restraints of the chaos field, extracting all of its value, Wei Wuyin piloted the Minor Elysium alongside the Hidden Wind toward the four Sages.

They left their abodes and met him with varying expressions and complex emotions. Pakhet brought a sheepish Wei Si over. As a Spartan, he wasn't terrified of any existence, but Pakhet had something that others didn't—Wei Wuyin's interest. While others might not know of Wei Wuyin's thoughts and habits, Wei Si was abundantly aware of the little intricacies of Wei Wuyin's expressions and gestures indicating his thoughts by virtue of being his cousin!

The way Wei Wuyin looked at and talked to Pakhet was very different from his general tone toward someone like Imentet or Nepri, so in his mind, she was a woman of interest and a potential…

He didn't dare to complete the thought and decided to just keep quiet and obedient throughout the entire four hours as he held the Edict Seed.

When he jumped on the ship, Wei Wuyin gave him a look and then a wild, almost juvenile smile surfaced on his face, and Wei Si laughed heartily in a natural response, completely doing away with his obedient and silent demeanor, and hurriedly rushed to Wei Wuyin excitedly. The cousins observed the Edict Seed together like it was a newly obtained marble.

"Good stuff," Wei Wuyin commented.

"Very good stuff!" Wei Si remarked loudly.

The duo acting like this was a sight they hadn't expected.

Both of them knew of the outrageous value of an Edict Seed. Wei Wuyin carefully kept the seed as Wei Si whispered in his ear a few words. Since he whispered, everyone here heard him given their cultivation.

Pakhet's brows furrowed while Imentet gave Pakhet a surprised look.

Wei Wuyin poked Wei Si's large face away. "Ignore him," Wei Wuyin said to Pakhet before he inspected the conditions of each Ascendant and Valkyrie. Only after confirming they were still deep in comprehending new insights regarding mana and chaos mana did he nod. The gains here were bound to assist them in their future cultivation.

Then, the last remaining active Shell World was still there. The Shell World with five abandoned geniuses.

"I'm a little surprised," Ming Shufeng remarked. She didn't have fate with this opportunity, so she was focused on observing the battles beyond the chaos field through the senses of the fish in the silver sphere. "Why didn't they announce their organizations or factions?"

Ming Shufeng had traveled with Long Chen early on and then rode on the coattails of San Yongli for a while, and they both had situations like this. But the forces would often announce their backing or threaten their clans with extermination. Instead, they hurriedly returned and fled at the fastest conceivable speed.

Nepri, a little sullen, was more experienced with these matters, so he answered. "Against four concealed Sages at our levels? Even if they announced their organizations, they might do more harm than good. Wouldn't the forces backing us or perhaps even ourselves act against them to get rid of future troubles? If they dared to announce themselves to us, I'm sure their organizations would execute them before we could as they obviously harbor ill-intent against their own organizations.

"Taking a few steps back, if we learned they were from some overly powerful organization, why would we stop robbing them after learning they were wealthier? They were in a considerably weaker position than us. The smartest thing to do for us would be to slaughter them all and hide every last trace of ourselves at any cost."

This series of answers caused Ming Shufeng to become stunned into silence. Soon, a contemplative light flashed in her eyes before a blast of realization. Those events only happened out of ignorance, stupidity, or overconfidence.

"It's not that using your background or origins isn't useful to prevent catastrophe. The issue with that is it's best used passively and before any developing situation to stifle potential threats, not in an active situation of violence. You're only telling your murderer who to avoid after killing you," Imentet added with a mocking chuckle.

Wei Wuyin couldn't help but nostalgically recall that young woman who was a future companion, cauldron, and concubine of the Northfrost Royal Duke. The Heavenly Daos were sly, and the karma of the Inheritors of Sin against Blessed was even more sly.

"Oh! Cousin Wei! There's someone I almost forgot to mention," Wei Si's eyes sparked with recollection. That petite little girl with scars on her legs wielding two tomahawks flashed in his mind as he looked at the Shell World.