Paragon of Sin

"The Core!" Five voices resounded within Wei Wuyin's mind. Even King, the ruler of the single sound, had spoken out those two words! The golden gushing of light swarmed into the cache's room and lit up the room in brilliance. The air had a hue of gold. 

All four of his Astral Souls started to vibrate with various emotions, especially Kratos who was thumping with such force that Wei Wuyin's physical body was expanding and contracting from the pumping surge of draconic blood. Those silver eyes of his started to gloss with a grey sheen, the human pupils of his eyes were changing ever so slowly, changing into something inhuman.

With an unfathomably deep breath, Wei Wuyin reached out both of hands to the sky as if he was upholding the sky. He held that breath in for a long moment as the vast astral force stored within his body started to surge outwards. The pillars continued to shift towards him, but his eyes were affixed to that golden light that peeked out from the broken hexagonal panels that formed the artificial sky.

The build-up of astral force within his body started to generate a torrential current that circulated around his body. The air pressure caused the pillars to tremble. Those closest to Wei Wuyin had their transparent protective shielding crack from just the sheer power being generated. 

"Argh!" A pained groan resounded far away, awakened by the rising power that originated from Wei Wuyin's body. After experiencing Wei Wuyin's fully powered fist, Lin Ming had lost consciousness from impact. He had never felt such explosive power before, and it was transformed into a shockwave, so he hadn't taken the attack directly.

Yet his entire body was aching as his bones were fractured in multiple locations, and his lips spewed out buckets of blood from the internal damage he suffered. His entire front-side of his white outfit that marked his status as a Holy Son was tainted a glaring sanguine color. 

Those grey eyes of his were dimmed of light, reflecting his current weakness and physical state. There was also disbelief in his eyes as he regained his senses, recalling what had just happened. 'Did he use that method again?' A frustrated and indignant thought emerged in his mind, trying to find an explanation for his instantaneous defeat.

Lin Ming had been rushing towards Wei Wuyin with the intent to fight, so it wasn't as if he was caught off-guard. The attack was seen by him, he just couldn't avoid it. With gritted teeth and a pair of clenched fists, he lifted his eyes to spot Wei Wuyin rising both hands to the sky. 

When Lin Ming saw this strange sight, he was shocked and confused, but more shocked by the pillars of treasures that were being moved to him like flickering shadows. He wanted to stand, unwilling to watch as his resources and wealth was taken. But as he tried to lift himself, his entire body released a sensation of outrageous pain!

"What?!" Lin Ming tried to move again, but was met with the same pain. With fear, he hurriedly inspected his physical state and dread emerged on his face. His meridians, bones, and dantian had suffered strong concussive damage. This compounded with the recent injury from the removed Spiritual Spell Restriction had totaled his body!

"Gah!" His own intrusive senses instigated a backlash that caused him to yelp in pain, a spray of congested blood was spat out from his mouth to relieve the various build-ups of pressure within his chest. There was a hint of madness, rage, and killing intent in his eyes. 

But he had to hurriedly deal with his current issues, so he subconsciously sent his spiritual sense into his finger that held his spatial ring. But after doing so, he froze. He looked at the spatial ring and noted that it was cracked in its entirety. A dreadful sensation emerged in his heart as he tried to interact with it, but was met with the ring suffering further cracks. 

All his rejuvenating alchemical products and external trump cards were in his ring, and it now had a deep instability within its internal space and formations that extraction was impossible! His eyes darted to Wei Wuyin's floating figure. Was this deliberate?!

Without access to his spatial ring, all of his products and trump cards were out of his reach. While he couldn't use any of these during the Holy Challenge due to the rules, this wasn't the Holy Challenge! Unfortunately…

Wei Wuyin hadn't spared Lin Ming a single thought after dealing with him. His entire focus was affixed to the world above, but after a while, he calmed his heart, and Kratos, down a little. The outpour of power from his body redirected, finding another purpose. 

He targeted every pillar in this world! With a low shout, a guttural roar that seemed to originate from mythical legends, the astral force built-up within his body exploded out of his body like a vast, world-consuming tsunami. This astral force was grey-colored with mixtures of seven-colors within.

Wang Yutian watched all this from beyond, once more intrigued by Wei Wuyin. The earlier words he said to Lin Ming seemed to be justified as Wei Wuyin's sheer abundance of astral force was sufficient enough to encapsulate the entire cache roughly ten thousand times over and then some. In moments, he watched the entire space become flooded with astral force.

While Wang Yutian wasn't aware of Wei Wuyin's Alchemic Astral Soul, he was aware of his Alchemic Force. He had observed Wei Wuyin concoct numerous ninth-grade products, suppressing the manifestation with an exquisite saber formation. 

Wei Wuyin had the makings of an elite genius, even by his cultivation society's standards. With a Mortal Sovereign Alchemist ability, two thirty-two Astral Cores, a strong bloodline that originates from dragons, a terrifyingly powerful spiritual strength, and all at an age younger than fifty, he was unbelievably outstanding!

Wang Yutian then felt every last pillar vanish, brought inside the spatial ring that Wei Wuyin wore. Except one pillar, the last and largest pillar that contained the Combat-Type Voidship that Da Shan was on. Her golden eyes watched as Wei Wuyin seemed to take everything, and her heart fluttered with all sorts of emotions!

Was his domineering?

This was domineering! 

Two Chosens? He claimed the entire cache for himself, defeating the other Chosen with a single move, and all while wearing a smile! She knew the value of all these pillars, finding rare and exotic materials that were extremely expensive, and some of them were enough to rival the worth of small-sized planets in their starfield by themselves!

There was an internal pride and intense love building within her heart. The more she thought about her relationship with Wei Wuyin, the more unbelievable she felt it was. This young, handsome, and awe-inspiring human had just walked into her life with a radiant smile and a firm stance. They fought it out in a battle of strength, and after she was repeatedly defeated, things soon led to now.

Because of him, she got her lifelong revenge for her family with her own hands that allowed her to sleep peacefully and comfortably since. Because of him, she had reached a cultivation level that she hadn't even had hopes of. 

The Light Reflection Phase! 

Since she started cultivating, she knew her limits of talent, resources, and background was likely leading to her reaching the Spatial Resonance Phase after centuries at best, and her foundation would be littered with flaws and deficiencies, but now she had a stable and excellent foundation alongside her youth. There was no immense build-up of impurities in her body or Spirit of Cultivation. 

This all felt so incredibly surreal to her, and while she never told Wei Wuyin, whenever she woke up beside him, comfortably lying on his chest, she always felt as if she was dreaming all of this up in another world where she laid at her deathbed with endless regret of her unfulfilling life. 

She never expected a single choice carried so much possibility in life. If she had been obstinate, or brushed Wei Wuyin off as a pesting human that day, she would be just an ordinary cultivator still struggling in the Sky Ruler Phase. After these thoughts flashed through her mind, her body grew hot and her face flushed as Wei Wuyin's image branded itself permanently within her heart.

Wei Wuyin was unaware of Da Shan's blooming feelings of love, focused entirely on ensuring every last pillar was sealed and kept within his spatial ring properly. After a brief sweeping of his spiritual sense, he relaxed. 

He lifted his head to see the continuous outpour of golden light. With a serious gaze, he asked: "Wang Yutian, can you act against me?" 

Wang Yutian was enthralled by Wei Wuyin's means, so he was taken aback by this question. "What do you mean?" The remaining panels of the sky rippled in response. 

"As Chosen, if I were to bring harm to the World Realm, can you act against me?" Wei Wuyin clarified.

"..." Wang Yutian was silent for a long moment. "I'm unable to act against any Chosen Candidate, and its within my oath to ensure you remain protected and alive so that the True Element Sect's Secondary Overseer can take you to the sect for your official coronation as a Chosen."

Wei Wuyin realized he hadn't officially gained the title of Chosen from Wang Yutian's words. It likely encompassed an oath and ceremony similar to the Grand Prince's. It might be more luxurious and impactful than it. 

"Then, I have a question: What would happen if this World Realm's Core was destroyed?" 

"..." Wang Yutian this time was even more silent for longer. After a long moment followed by trembling ripples of the sky panel, "The World Realm's Independent Space will grow unstable. It would lead to the eventual collapse of it, followed by the changing of its landmass's Void Coordinates. The resulting collapse would send a wave of erupting power that would eviscerate every last living lifeform on the inhabited landmass."

Wei Wuyin nodded. His eyes narrowed even further at the golden light that leaked through the false sky. He had been trying to obtain a Chosen title to restrain Wang Yutian from acting against him by his oath. That was his original plan, and he could simply ask for its location if it was within his rights. If not, he might be brought near the core, which likely was the location of the final cache.

He had schemed earlier against Lin Ming. so that he would be forced to be first pick, and Lin Ming, by oath, would be forced to bring him to the Elementus Cache to do so. This was in the event that he wasn't able to reach the World Realm's Core himself. Of course, he had contingencies in place.

The Elementus Token had his power within, and he was planning to use his Infinite Void Wings, his Void Dragon's Bloodline Ability, to breach the space to arrive here if Lin Ming somehow avoided his oath or found some disgusting loophole he neglected. He had other ways too, but they were less reliable.

Wei Wuyin withdrew a few peak-quality ninth-grade pills and elixirs he'd prepared. He downed them all. His Astral Souls, namely Ori and King, went into full force to refine them. He started to repair the self-inflicted damage he'd done on them, sitting down in a cross-legged position.

Wei Wuyin closed his eyes, focusing fully on recovering his consumed astral force and their Astral Core's original state. 

Wang Yutian felt that Wei Wuyin's aura was filled with a steel, devastatingly terrifying willpower to perform the absolute daring of feats. He hastily reminded, "The World Realm's Core isn't something even an Ascended would casually destroy. Furthermore, it has a protective layer that would require dozens of Starlords to bypass." The tone he spoke with was filled with anxiety. For some reason, his mental fluctuations were rapidly beating like a heart.

What did Wei Wuyin intend to do?!