Paragon of Sin

When the saber howled, the world followed. When the saber howled, the King ascended. 

Wei Wuyin recalled these two sentences mentioned in an old folklore of his hometown, something his older brother would often say to explain what it meant to wield a saber. It wasn't a choice, it was a birthright.

The moment an individual was born, their hearts held a sharpness that allowed them to move the world to their will. It was profound nonsense at the time he heard this, but feeling the entire world act upon his beck and call, becoming a saber that followed his edge, Wei Wuyin understood an insight that touched upon the Saber Dao.

Wei Wuyin had named King after those two sentences. King was so thrilled by this name that it threatened to explode if its name was changed, also because he wanted to name it "tch". 

The blinding saber light pierced into the void, dug into the earth, and parted the skies. A multicolored space displayed itself, clearly not the Dark Void. A long, deep, unfathomably clean scar formed for a full hundred miles, originating from Wei Wuyin's saber edge into the horizon.

As it grew further and further away, the depth and width of the saber scar widened until it became a mile long! Wei Wuyin had changed the topography of the surroundings with a single swing of his saber!

"Haaa…" A soft sigh resounded from his lips. His entire body trembled, the hand that held his saber quivered, and the Nascent Saber Soul's physical body composed of Elemental Origin Energies started to disintegrate. It peeled off slowly, bits and pieces of it floating upwards in dazzling and beautiful motes of various colors.

The saber intent within his eyes flickered intensely, sharp enough to kill with a single glance. When Wei Wuyin peered down at the long scar that formed, he noted a figure that levitated in the sky directly intersecting the scar. The lone mountain that was once there had vanished entirely.

A Realmlord's body has been refined by powerful, exceptionally exquisite energies for centuries, sometimes even millennia. It would usually reach a level of hardness that could exceed star beasts, sometimes surpassing them. 

"Guulg!" A choked gurgle sounded from the figure's mouth. The spittle and gushes of air was filled with a struggle, a tenacious desire for life. 

Wei Wuyin flew over, blurring and arriving before Qu Xiaoying. Her current bodily state was horrendous. Half her body was gone, from her right shoulder to her left abdomen, all things below were completely and utterly gone. There wasn't a hint of blood that leaked from the cut that severed her into two.

Those eyes of hers were filled with fear, shock, disbelief, and a vivacious plea for mercy. The longer one lived, the more dreams a person had, the more authority, wealth, and power they obtained, the more a person feared death. If cultivation did not exist, if the ability to grasp your own fate did not exist, this might not be the case, but it did.

Wei Wuyin's eyes lacked a single iota of pity or mercy, merely an indifferent gaze. "You hunted me. You can only blame yourself. If the situation was reversed...maybe there's no need to think like that. I'll send you off." He used the last bits of Element's dissipating form to swing light towards the remaining portion of Qu Xiaoying's body. She murmured out an incomplete scream filled with blazing hatred and vicious curses.

A ray of saber light engulfed her whole, erasing her from existence.

Wei Wuyin waved his hand, and Void Force flowed from his fingertips as he pierced into the surrounding space. He closed his eyes, focusing heavily on the world until he found a remnant signature of an independent spatial dimension on the verge of collapse.

This was the internal space of Qu Xiaoying's spatial ring. It was entirely destroyed, so the key to it was gone, but Wei Wuyin was a Void Dragon; there was no location that he could not enter, no location he could not exit.

He kept a stoic expression as he connected the space of his spatial ring with the nearly collapsed one, swiftly sending the contents into his own. With a faint exhale, he recalled the sequence of events that occurred, realizing that he was teetering on death's edge.

He lifted his right sleeve, realizing there was no change in his Karmic Luck Value. After a long while, he pulled his sleeve down. The most reliable thing in his life was his cultivation and himself. A single mistake, a single delay, a single wrong action, and his life would've been uncertain. 

He flipped his palm, retrieving a ninth-grade recuperative pill and consumed it. King immediately took it inside his World Sea, his entire sea of astral force was consumed entirely by that single attack. If he unleashed something like this on the Myriad Monarch Main Planet, perhaps the planet would've been severed in half.

As he regarded the continent, he frowned. The durability of this continent was extraordinary. Furthermore, there weren't any protective formations to prevent its destruction. He had unleashed such a strong power, yet there wasn't a single response. Perhaps his level of power wasn't enough to threaten it yet, and this caused his eyebrows to furrow slightly.

In truth, he knew that while his attack was strong, there were many factors to Qu Xiaoying's defeat. Firstly, she was exhausted. Her defense would've been severely weakened as a result. Secondly, this Season of Regression suppressed Realmlord's strength considerably. They couldn't control the ambient energies or mana in the surroundings, and their spatial force was affected. 

Lastly, she didn't expect it. 

Wei Wuyin wasn't too foolish or naive to think a straightforward battle would end so easily, but that was largely irrelevant. He could disperse the restrictions on his Ninth-Grade Pellets now. While they might not have as much power as his saber, if he used a hundred at once, who knew what would happen? 

That being said, he had the confidence to face a Realmlord directly. Furthermore, he now had space to expand his Astral Cores, strengthen his innate energies, and improve the quality of his Astral Force. At the moment, his Astral Cores were ten centimeters, the maximum limit of the Soul Idol Phase. In the Spatial Resonance Phase, he had more room to grow.

"Each of you have reached the Nine-Ripple Spatial Resonance, but I still need to concoct the Soul Deity Invoker Elixir to ensure all of you reach ten-rings, and then for the ten-ripples." He mumbled to himself and the others. Fortunately, as long as he hadn't reached the Seventh Stage of the Astral Core Realm, the Realm World Phase, the unrefined Manifested Spirit Energy can still be used to unlock their heaven-defying potential.

The four Astral Souls had fully recovered, sending out their blazing excitement. Wei Wuyin brightly smiled. He and these Astral Souls of his had much potential waiting to be excavated with his Mortal Sovereign Alchemist abilities. 

A faint spiritual fluctuation emerged from behind him. 

Wei Wuyin realized it was the bearded elf who had intense hostility towards him. He sighed to himself. Shaking his head, he decided against sending them off as well. It'll be a tough battle fighting a Realmlord at full strength, even in the Season of Regression. 

He also had this instinctual feeling that told him the bearded elf was stronger than Qu Xiaoying. This was what he felt when he saw him, comparing him to Lin Ming's mysterious female companion. He didn't know her cultivation base, but it was definitely not an ordinary Realmlord. 

The bearded elf sent his spiritual sense out cautiously. After experiencing the change in the world, he was faintly terrified. He had even invoked his Worldly Domain, yet the ambient energies still escaped his control. His heart was trembling with uncertain fear.

"Was that Intent?" The term World of the Heart, Heart of the Intent was widely known by experts in the Four Extreme Continent. This was because it was rumored that the divinities of the continent all had it, and the Chosen One will harness World of the Heart, Heart of the Elements Intent, bringing the world to ascension!

The shortened version was World Heart Intent, and things like Saber Intent would be referred to as Saber Heart Intent. 

Was what he experienced Saber Heart Intent? The bearded elf was filled with questions. The world seemed to have become a sharp weapon of deadly war, threatening to slaughter all things beneath its edge. The lingering sensation still caused his hairs to stand and his heart to race slightly.

He saw Wei Wuyin floating in the sky, freely manipulating the ambient mana during the Season of Regression. He gawked in disbelief for a moment, his heart filled with even more doubts. Then, he saw Wei Wuyin turn towards him, a faint lingering sharpness within his eyes. This once pitiful boy that he believed he could kill with a wave of his hand had changed, becoming an exceptional expert.

The bearded elf didn't sense the living aura of Qu Xiaoying, but felt the rippling shaking of space, a sign of a Realmlord's recent demise. He furrowed his brows, rubbing his beard with strong tugs, and focusing his eyes on the scar that tore through the ground for a hundred miles. His eyes were filled with a mysterious light of contemplation.

Woosh!

Wei Wuyin flew over, keeping the Nascent Saber Soul. He arrived within a few hundred meters of the bearded elf. From this distance, he could instantly react to any hostile intentions.

"Let's talk." Both of them said simultaneously, their eyes staring into the other's.