Paragon of Sin

The divine light pierced into the sky, but the Origin Spear and its burst of power was unstoppable. Wei Wuyin's silver eyes exploded from its lethal power! With a last breath, he clutched at his spatial ring as if seeking to find something to use, a last hope.

Lin Ming felt the death of Wei Wuyin through his Origin Spear, a feeling he had felt numerous times before. To think that a character on the level of Wei Wuyin, the Ascendant Emperor of Neo-Dawn, had fallen today due to his own overestimation of his beliefs!

"While you were unwilling to kill me, I'm not like you." He softly said, looking at the lifeless corpse that had black skin and released a deathly-type of toxic energy, likely the severe backlash of whatever pill Wei Wuyin used to enhance his Astral Core and physical strength. He had acted swiftly, unwilling to let the situation turn again.

With a little sigh, he waited for the platform to fade, for him to obtain the three other badges. But after a minute, it hadn't. He turned to Wei Wuyin's corpse with uncertainty.

"Was he still alive?" As if to verify his thoughts, he lifted his spear and plunged its sharp tip into Wei Wuyin's brain, twisting it and exploding his head into bits of bone, blood, and brain matter. If he wasn't dead before, playing possum somehow, he was truly dead now.

But no change occurred. Lifting his gaze, he saw a sparkling divine light rotate wildly. He recalled Wei Wuyin's last efforts. At the end, he screamed out "save me" with utter desperation. What was supposed to save him? 

But then a figure emerged from outside the curtain, and a divine voice erupted from the sky. "The final trial stages have been activated by the Holy Son of Tri-Elementus! All Chosen Candidates will fight until death or surrender! The last one among you shall become Chosen!"

Shocked, he turned to the new figure and noted the sky-blue eyes and pastel green hair tied into a ponytail. He recognized this figure as the Holy Son of Transformative Waters! While he hadn't spoken to him before, he knew he was powerful and an outsider!

"I see," He Yanglei said. Afterwards, he turned to Lin Ming and brought out a whip that moved like a serpent. With a fierce roar, he launched himself at Lin Ming. "I'll kill you while you're weak!" With a malicious expression, he revealed his cultivation at the Sixth Stage of the Astral Core Realm, the Gravity Emission Phase!

He felt that this was his cultivation, but to think it was true! With a shake of his heart, he steadied his mind and began a vicious fight. It was only after he used all of his strength, overpowering the other's Elemental Origin Intent, did he find an opening to kill.

When his spear's edge removed his head, he was covered in blood and outrageously exhausted.

A thud exploded from outside the curtain, causing him to see an indistinct shadow try to pry themselves into the battlefield. Unfortunately, divine light erupted and obliterated the figure!

"His Dao Protector! How unfortunate…" Lin Ming felt it was a pity that an expert of such caliber was killed by the divine light. Suddenly, he was engulfed by divine light and healed completely, even his astral force recovered.

"Another fight?" A sense of dread overwhelmed him as he saw another ray of divine light arrive, showing the figure of a woman. He was startled after seeing her arrive on the platform, feeling her to be extremely familiar, but he wasn't certain why. 

The female figure frowned, then touched her face and removed her concealment! A face of utmost familiarity to Lin Ming revealed itself! How could it be her?! 

"I need to win this, so unless one of us dies, it'll" she said, removing a white-colored blade from her spatial ring.

He couldn't help but warily smile. This woman had saved his life on the continent, and he had seen her bathing in the nude. They faced the pursuit of a Realmlord and came out on top, escaping and surviving that incident. He owed her his life and then some. To think she was his final challenge!

But to win, he'd have to kill her or force her to surrender! An unwillingness to harm her emerged in his heart as he gave a wry smile. Even if he wanted to face her, her real strength definitely exceeded his. If the others were to see this woman, only the members of the temple would know this woman!

And she wasn't the Holy Daughter of Absolute Hot Fire!!!

Lin Ming, however, did not know this. With a shake of his head, he said: "You saved my life. While I can kill others, I will never repay a debt with enmity. I surrender!" He held his spear up, sending out his spiritual energy declaration upwards.

"Was that so hard?" A voice echoed out of the world as if a divine god, originating from everywhere and everything.

BZZT!

DUUN!

SWOSH!

The world started to collapse, beginning from the female figure to the platform and reaching the Solar Star that hung above the sky in perpetuity. They disassembled into bits and pieces of multicolored lights, transforming bleak and grey as they fell further away from him.

Before long, he was in a world of complete and utter darkness. There was nothing, and even his body was slowly fragmenting into innumerable pieces. "WHAT IS THIS?!" Fear engulfed his heart at this unknown, uncertain what just happened!

His surroundings changed abruptly, once more meeting a familiar face with a grin. An unearthly handsome face with radiant silver eyes! Wei Wuyin!

Lin Ming felt the familiar force of a hand upon his throat, restraining his voice. Even the Origin Spear used to end Wei Wuyin's life was still lifeless on the ground.

What's happening?! Confused, perplexed, unsure of reality, Lin Ming's mind was dizzy with chaotic thoughts. He had just seen reality fall to pieces, and the curtain of light started to quiver about and recede into the sky. The battle had ended?!

But...how?

Wei Wuyin tossed Lin Ming away, as if tossing a bag of trash. Lin Ming's body bounced and skidded until it finally stopped a distance away, but the restrictions on his body remained. Unable to move properly, he could only turn his head away to see Wei Wuyin floating with the light of divinity upon him.

Before he could react, his body shifted until he and his Origin Spear were brought into the Sky Zephyr Temple. He stood beside Grand Priest Zi Gu, who was looking at him with an extremely strange and hostile gaze. If it wasn't for that woman who vanished suddenly, he would kick Lin Ming out of the temple.

Wei Wuyin was returned to his nine Origin Dragons. They moved and breathed, wanting to get closer to Wei Wuyin. With a faint smile, he looked at the badge in his hand that was nearly complete, and only missing two more. At the moment, he had become the Holy Son of Hepta-Elementus!

The young woman was baffled below, and so was everyone else! Even Tang Xingyun was confused, not matching Lin Ming's image she had of him in her heart with an individual that would surrender! She thought he had dreams and goals that he would never give up on, even in the face of death!

The two were just staring at each other for several minutes, with one unwilling to kill and the other aware of this, unwilling to surrender. The spectators even started to respect Lin Ming's fortitude in the face of death, and a few that considered themselves smart felt that he wouldn't do this lest he was fully aware that Wei Wuyin wouldn't end his life. But as their admiration grew, waiting for Wei Wuyin's eventual backlash, Lin Ming seemed to have surrendered out of nowhere!

"What happened?" The young woman asked the old man, truly confused by this event. Why would Lin Ming surrender in this situation?

The old man frowned for a long moment, inspecting Wei Wuyin. "I don't know. Perhaps he made a deal with him?" He, an expert of his level, was entirely unsure what just happened.

"Regardless of what happened, the former Holy Son of Grandgale had surrendered. This is reality." Declaring this, he felt that he had to learn how Wei Wuyin convinced the unyielding to yield. What level of cunning and skill, of manipulative means, must one reach to do such a thing?!