Paragon of Sin

The Shattered World Moon was subjected to chaos, rumbling, explosions, and raging thunderous booms echoed out without end. The foundation of the Shattered World Palace began to collapse, the walls cracked, the floors fragmented and became lopsided, and Yue Songli and her father, Song Yunhai, remained within the palace.

The former was anxiety incarnate; her eyes were flashing with spiritual reflections of her vividly recent memories of being imprisoned, subjected to another's will, and believing that her life and freedom was obliterated forever. The latter was pale, looking at the dust particles of the shattered spiritual crystal in an absentminded and confused manner.

When nothing happened after several seconds, a faint smile of relief lifted on his lips. When Yue Songli turned towards her father, seeking some comfort, that smile was hidden away behind her visage of shock. When Yue Songli saw this, her emotions felt disturbed and she didn't voice her question, merely looked towards her father before a thunderous boom far louder than the rest resounded.

She had to use her mystic power to stabilize herself, looking all around her as she felt the emissions of power all around her. She could feel five different powers that far exceeded her own, unfathomable and powerful! Followed by seventeen lesser powers, yet their auras still exceeded hers.

'Five Earthly Saints and Seventeen Demi-Mortal Lords!' Her senses felt their abundant forces being unleashed wildly. Was this all for her? Did those bastards send four Earthly Saints, just for her?! Will her mother be okay?

Please let her be okay…

Yue Songli softly repeated, "Not again. Not again…"

-----

Six months prior, in the Void-Blank Space that bordered the Aeternal Sky Starfield's Elementus Domain, Wei Wuyin, Wu Yu, and Wen Mingna were standing atop an artificial asteroid that floated through the Dark Void without direction or speed. It casually cruised through the space, a faint translucent layer engulfed it, concealing the auras on it.

"I've fully refined the World Genesis Elixir; its effects are miraculous beyond belief, and…" Wu Yu touched his chest, directly upon his beating heart, and continued: "I've even reached the second stage of the Blood Origin Method, attaining the World-Blood Stage and developing my Heart of Origin."

Wen Mingna was standing beside Wei Wuyin, giving Wu Yu multiple inspective looks at various areas of his body. He felt far more unfathomable than before, a distinct gleam of interest flashed within her eyes.

"I must say," Wu Yu lifted his hand to his face, clenching it slightly and causing faint ripples to surge outwards, "The Earthly Saint Phase is a whole 'nother level of existence. It's as if I ascended to another realm, like going from the Astral Core Realm to the Mystic Ascendant Realm. My body can refine products and energies far, far faster than before."

When Wu Yu became an Earthly Saint, it took him far less time to refine 30% of the World Genesis Elixir than before, likely a benefit of a body infused with Awakened Mystic Intent, including these thousands of mystic runes flowing within him. They supported the refinement process to an extremely noticeable degree.

"How's your consolidation?" Wei Wuyin asked, similarity giving Wu Yu a look of interest. For two mortals to freely observe an Earthly Saint being as if they were on exhibition was a rare moment. But Wei Wuyin had a greater investment in Wu Yu's state.

Wu Yu gave a smile of confidence, "Not only has my refinement speed reached tens, if not hundreds of times, faster than before, but that Essential Forging Elixir you've given me has performed tens of years of effort and condensed it in a few weeks. I'm in awe, Young Lord."

Despite Wei Wuyin not being an Ascended being, he suddenly had several Mystic-Earth grade alchemical products at his disposal, such as the World Genesis Elixir and Essential Forging Elixir, the latter meant to rapidly consolidate one's mystic-graded innate energies. Whether it was his physical energies, his mental energies, essence energies, or spiritual energies, the Essential Forging Elixir had refined them all to his current stage.

"Well, it is a high-tier Mystic-Earth grade product." Wei Wuyin nodded. From Cai Liuyang, the lover of Jing Jiu, the War Blessed from the Battlefield, Wei Wuyin had acquired a smorgasbord of pills, elixirs, and pastes of the Mystic-Earth grade.

She was obscenely wealthy. As a Demi-Mortal Lord from a society where Ascended Sovereign level beings exist, and being cherished by her force and considered an extreme talent, this was to be expected. Relative, at least. The most notable degree of her wealth was preparatory means for her upcoming Earthly Ascension.

This included the Essential Forging Elixir, to condense dozens of years of cultivation to a greatly reduced period of time. Despite being an Earthly Saint, having a lifespan of tens of thousands of years, every second still matters when in pursuit of greater heights. Wu Yu now benefited from her Senior's hard work.

Wei Wuyin still was vexed. He hadn't perfected the Eighth Source Transcendence Spell yet, but he had used it once again, costing him Utmost Purity Mist, to make the Essential Forging Elixir easier to refine. Shockingly, the Essential Forging Elixir's quality hadn't improved from its high-quality level. This was likely the result of incorrect infusion of Utmost Purity Mist or refinement technique.

It seemed different Elixirs might have different needs to elevate their respective qualities, be it quantity of Utmost Purity Mist or a change of infusion technique. There was still room to grow and more to learn, with many of his ideas being hypothetical for now.

Unfortunately, experimentation cost far too much.

"Young Lord, shall we visit the Everlore Association?" Wu Yu's eyes glinted with a dark, murderous light. He fully intended to kill that Ever-Knight, but his inexperience shone through and resulted in him escaping. Considering he made an attempt on Wei Wuyin's life, it was an affront to his status as a Grand Knight to allow that individual to live in any capacity.

Wei Wuyin felt the cold, infuriated killing intent emanating from Wu Yu. Wen Mingna slightly shivered. The mental emotions of an Earthly Saint were incredibly pervasive, especially with their mystic-graded mental energies empowered thoughts. If it wasn't for Wu Yu's conscious control, ensuring that Wei Wuyin wasn't affected much, she might have trouble breathing and staying conscious as a mere mortal.

'To think Grand Monarch Wu Yu is so obedient…' Wen Mingna was awed once more by this situation. For an Earthly Saint to stay subordinate and deferential to a mortal, it was an outrageous notion that many would laugh at, finding it unbelievable.

Wei Wuyin thoughtfully lowered his head, hand on chin, and eyebrows furrowed slightly as he considered Wu Yu's suggestion. In the end, he shook his head. "Wen Mingna scouted the ongoing situation, and the Everlore Association is acting friendly on the surface. It'll be reckless to challenge them without knowing their full strength. You might be an Earthly Saint at the 8th Runic Ascendant state, but what if they had someone at that level hidden away? Or even worse, a Worldly Saint level being or greater means?

"Furthermore, it isn't in my best interest to fight a war with the Everlore Association right now." Wei Wuyin lifted his head and explained his thought process, alluding to the timing of an attack as inappropriate.

Wu Yu's killing intent slowly dissipated after hearing this. He nodded, accepting Wei Wuyin's thoughts on the matter. It was highly possible that the Everlore Association had trump cards that'll take him down. While he was confident, he wasn't that reckless. Still, he regretted not killing that Ever-Knight.

"My Golden Gate Pavilion also revealed something I couldn't divine properly, that the Everlore Association had tried to kill you out of fear." Wen Mingna added calmly, knowing the limitation of her ability.

Wu Yu gave this Heavenly Seer a glance. Heavenly Seers and Oracles were extremely mysterious, having means to glimpse into events of the past, present, and future, and even intent of others. He still didn't know how they cultivated to do so.

"I don't understand that," he voiced his confusion, "why would the Everlore Association fear you? The King of Everlore had developed just fine here, and in a way, he was far more talented than you on the surface. This power existed for so long, why would they consider you a threat? At best, you were a new competitor." The past suggested that the King of Everlore's growth went unabated by the various forces, his identity was worshipped and his skills were wanted even before he became a Saint Alchemist.

Wei Wuyin shook his head, "Different times, different circumstances." The world wasn't exactly aware of his cultivation base, only presumed him as mortal, but even his age was called into question by the masses, including his cultivation. While most hadn't outright trounced on the Golden Life Pavilion's declaration at the Grand Demonstration, they didn't fully believe it in their hearts.

There was no proof except words from citizens of the now-destroyed Everlore Starfield. They weren't very reliable. Furthermore, the King of Everlore developed at a time where Mortal Sovereign Alchemists were in shorter supply and no Alchemic Saints existed. Thousands of years later, there were now dozens of Mortal Sovereign Alchemists, three Saint Alchemists, and numerous Earthly Saints.

He couldn't fathom why a long-standing organization like the Everlore Association was willing to sacrifice billions to kill him, but he didn't feel inclined to investigate. The reasoning was mostly irrelevant, their actions spoke volumes of their intent.

"It might be the will of one, not of the whole." Wen Mingna said, causing both Wei Wuyin and Wu Yu to consider this possibility. If so, it might not be the Everlore Association, but the Ever-Knight himself. While the world said the Ever-Knights were beings loyal to the association, acting for the association, it didn't mean they were slaves without the ability to act as they wanted. They were Earthly Saints, after all.

After a brief period of silence, Wu Yu asked: "If not the Everlore Association, where to, Young Lord?"

Wei Wuyin had waited two months for Wen Mingna and Wu Yu's cultivation to consolidate, while also refining the Nascent Saber Soul with War Souls. Unfortunately, two months were too short for it to advance a level.

"With your rise in cultivation, its time to visit the True Element Sect. Let's see how they welcome their so-called Chosen," Wei Wuyin said with a faint smile. He prioritized his eyes above all else. Without his Celestial Eyes, his cultivation path was permanently hindered. He couldn't waste anymore time on this.

Wu Yu's eyes lit. Han Yuhei, that brat, was at the True Element Sect.

Wen Mingna remained silent, but she didn't seem against it.

Wei Wuyin nodded, about to summon the archaic Voidship when his spatial ring flashed with spiritual light!

He inspected the transmission, and his eyebrows lifted in surprise. Wu Yu and Wen Mingna looked curiously at Wei Wuyin. Judging by his reaction, the message he received was certainly not ordinary.

"It's those three…"