Paragon of Sin

While the Divine Elemental Soul underwent its qualitative transformation, Wei Wuyin cleaned himself up, replaced his pants, and pondered about the events that had just transpired. With his Celestial Eyes, he had observed it all from beginning to the end and realized what the Mortal Star Formation Tribulation truly was, and why his Natal Souls were capable of overcoming them with ease.

When the Divine Elemental Soul entered the illusory star, that was actually the condensed form of energies and some profound laws of cultivation related specifically to his Divine Elemental Soul, it had directly absorbed and refined all of it. This elicited an extraordinarily peculiar response from it, and therefore him, but it enlightened it regarding the intricacies of elemental energies which was similarly sent to him.

Not only did he obtain the quintessential key to unlocking Elemental Origin Intent, but he even obtained the designs to construct the Elemental Heart Intent.

Lifting his hand up, palm facing the sky, his elemental qi was conjured. It floated as a small orb of undefined power, but with a single thought, it became solidified with metallic properties and exuded metal energies. The orb of Elemental Metal Qi was quite normal, and even contained a silver sheen to it. He plunged his thoughts into his sea of consciousness as he brought forth the Elemental Origin Intent from his mind into action.

He simply exerted a hint of will: "Metal to liquid." This was a basic thought, and normally, his Elemental Metal Qi would simply change to Elemental Water Qi, but as he watched it liquify into a silver liquid form of Metal Qi, still exuding metal energies, his eyes narrowed.

"It still has the inherent abilities of metal...but has become a liquid?" With another thought, the liquid metal qi became like a flowing stream that circled around him several times like water until it returned to his palm, solidifying once more until it became the solidified metallic orb. 

He was stuck in thought for several minutes. This might seem useless to the basic-minded individual, but this ability was fundamentally magical! It defied the basic limits of certain elemental qi. If he was to execute a trapping art with Metal Qi in the form of water, then encapsulate and solidify an individual, it would be a thousand times harder to escape than water qi due to its inherent durability and properties.

Retrieving his qi, he created a spark which was ignited into an animated flame that flickered beautifully between his palms. He breathed out slightly and frosty cold air, visible to himself, was expelled. This flame wasn't a normal flame, but an icy-blue flame with ice qualities.

Instead of emitting heat, it emitted a frighteningly cold chill, consuming heat.

He tested more, such as wind that froze, burned, or shocked. This wasn't a simple application of merging elements, this was the inherent change of elemental property, fusing it with another one entirely. While he realized that there were some limitations, like how advanced elements were more difficult to gain the qualities of other advanced elements, the possibilities were essentially boundless.

After all this, he finally calmed down and focused. Since the Mortal Star Formation Tribulation was not an inherently destructive tribulation, and his Natal Souls had the unique ability of directly bypassing its difficulties, it was time to have his other Natal Souls experience this.

He interacted with the Divine Saber Natal Soul and asked if it was ready, and while it responded with just 'Tch', he felt its excited emotions. With a nod, he initiated the second tribulation! 

Once more, the speck within the bright sky mysteriously manifested within the sky, and all of his senses seemed to unnaturally fixate on its existence. While it wasn't noticeable by any means, and so insignificant that it could be largely ignored, he couldn't help but notice it.

His Divine Saber Natal Soul started to condense, gathering its lifetime of cultivation whilst simultaneously receiving energies from its fellow brethren. The only difference was that the transforming Divine Elemental Soul hadn't given it any type of support. It seemed to enter a similar state as an insect pupa within a chrysalis.

This speck within the sky continued to enlarge before it once more overtook his senses. While he knew that he, the cultivator facing this tribulation, was the only one who could visually observe this illusory phenomena, it still felt surreal to the extreme. 

This Mortal Star was wildly different than the one before. It was a star with a translucent surface and the shadow of an ever-moving saber constantly twisted and turned, slicing and gliding within. It seemed this saber was its core and stabilized its existence. However, unlike before, he didn't feel the elemental energies of the world gather. Instead, it was converting the worldly essence and mana to establish saber qualities within.

As he observed the surface, he realized that there were a near infinite amount of saber light as thin as gossamers as they crisscrossed, collided, and formed all sorts of miraculous arcs and shapes. His heart raced as he witnessed this with his Celestial Eyes.

Almost immediately, his eyes became dazed and glossy. He was plunged into a mysteriously profound state of enlightenment. Within his sea of consciousness was tracings of each line, arc, and movement of that saber. In moments, he felt different. The puzzle pieces that were scattered were gathered to him as natural as thought itself. 

Raising his right index finger, the essence of the world gathered with merely his will towards its tip. It formed a swirling mass of dense astral essence and then with a swipe of his finger, that astral essence transformed into highly concentrated saber essence. It contained an innate sharpness and splitting oppressive force, seeking to slice through the world and bring all things beneath its sharp edge to a clean end.

Woo!

His eyes soon regained their normalcy and he realized that the strike he had done was based purely on Intent. His eyes became slightly dignified as he observed within his heart the various changes within his mind. Saber Intent was exceptionally potent, capable of being used to refine essence into saber essence, but that essence was refined by his meridians and became his own.

Never had he experienced something like this; this experience of controlling the world's essence and externally converting it into something else. It was as if the world's essence was subjugated to his will, and Intent had become his meridians. Was this the potentiality of Intent?

Heart of the World, World of the Saber Intent!

"Hm!" Wei Wuyin smirked slightly as he regarded the Mortal Star above that seemed to possess boundless might. With a wave of his hand, he felt a profound connection to it that seemed to eclipse all things currently present, and this illusory manifestation that size seemed to be larger than his visual perception could gauge was shaken. It trembled ceaselessly as its inherent saber energies started to twist and turn, its size began to rapidly shrink as if under the orders of its god.

"So I can!" He exclaimed as he slowly clenched his hands into a tight fist and the Mortal Star shrunk abruptly until it became the size of a child's marble. With a soft wrenching motion of his hand, this marble flashed before him and his Celestial Eyes could see it clearly. Its energies were influenced by his Intent, under his complete and utter control.

"I see. I see! The Mortal Star Formation Tribulation's purpose is to help cultivators. It's not only to facilitate the growth of an Astral Soul, but to help develop and deepen one's understanding of Intent and energies." Considering his Divine Elemental Soul had grasped the principles of Elemental Origin Intent, then this made sense. 

"If that's the case, Intent has to be incredibly vital for future cultivation. I wonder when it'll play a part." His eyebrows furrowed as he recalled the Nine Phases of the Astral Core Realm. None of these phases required Intent to advance, causing him to be slightly confused as to when it'll matter.

"The realm after?" Upon further thought, it seemed like the purpose was to assimilate what one could and slowly develop their Intent. Fortunately, he obtained one Intent via absorption and the other by his own talents.

However, he was still somewhat confused. From what he could recall, amongst the five million Astral Core Cultivators, very, very, very, very few developed Intent. While he felt he was talented in regards to comprehension, he wasn't so arrogant to believe his talent would exceed the hundreds of trillions of cultivators that have existed for the last millennia. 

"Could it be the Zenith Mortal State? Could the 4th Mortal State, the minimum, have incomplete information about Intent? This and them fighting it instead of accepting it would...it'll make sense." As he thought more and more about it, he came to this realization. Those of a lesser Mortal State formed less helpful Mortal Stars, severely hindering them from comprehending Intent. In his heart, he felt somewhat melancholic, reminded of the phrase: Cultivation is difficult.

Inhaling and exhaling out all of his emotions, he realized that Intent was definitely vital to his and everyone's future cultivation path. His plan to focus on recruiting those with Intent for his faction was definitely the correct choice.

"Tch!" - Divine Saber Natal Soul.

He heard a harsh sound before his Divine Saber Natal Soul externalized and directly devoured the marble. In a huff, it returned back to his dantian. It was obviously in a bad mood as its opportunity to venture into that star was robbed from it.

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you see it, when it returned to his dantian, Wei Wuyin's eyes widened. Spontaneously, he felt a wave of euphoric and orgasmic pleasure that sent his entire body into overdrive.

He viciously stifled his moan, but couldn't halt his body's involuntary reaction as his legs shook and his lips twitched.

"…"

Another perfectly clean pair of pants...ruined.