Paragon of Sin

"A single mistake was all it took, cascading to a life ending with regret."

The hazy figure observing the events of the 12th Wall's sea of bitterness from high above began to visibly distort and shimmer. When the hazy figure finally dispersed, its energies transformed into a stream of subdued light that flitted through the various dimensional layers of space, eventually arriving elsewhere entirely.

It found itself in a strange space carved out of a mixture of chaos and stability; a large-sized crystalline spherical structure was here with seven differently colored rings circulating speedily around it, and at its equator was a thick platform of white jade, exuding a pure and stimulating light. The platform was rather large, expansive even, roughly about a thousand miles in every direction.

The platform held thousands of scattered existences, all garbed in alchemist robes of varying fashions, foreign and familiar to the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region. These existences were all exuding rich, lively alchemical auras, especially from their eyes as seven stars were present in each pupil, radiant and profound.

The Alchemic Stars of Mortal Spirituality!

Thousands of existences with them were present, all at the Mortal Sovereign Alchemist level as deemed by the Alchemic Dao itself! A grand, unimaginably fantastic achievement that could be lauded to trillions within the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region was extremely and disgustingly numerous here! If word were to get out, the eighteen regions would all staunchly deny the possibility of this ever existing in their era.

Yet, here it was.

HERE IT WAS!

The ray of light penetrated the crystalline globe with the utmost ease, quietly sinking until it found its target-a humanoid figure. The figure lifted their head slightly, revealing a pair of silver eyes and an unearthly handsomeness that could instill envy in gods and ghosts alike. Unlike Tian Yinwu's beautifully handsome features, this man was the epitome of masculinity. They were like two diametrically opposing forces on a spectrum.

Wei Wuyin!

The one and only Ascendant Emperor of Neo-Dawn!

"The Everclash shall begin in ten minutes! Ready yourselves, Alchemists." The voice was instructive and imposing, generating a tense, heavy air into the environment. The owner of the voice was a translucently blue figure that Wei Wuyin easily recognized but never expected to see here.

Wang Yutian!

The Spiritform that was tasked with handling the Myriad Dao Palaces under direct orders of the King of Everlore. According to Wang Yutian, the King of Everlore had saved his life and transformed him into a Spiritform. When he was younger, Wei Wuyin had been utterly confused and awed by the King of Everlore's mystical means, but after reaching his current level of cultivation, knowledge, and experience, the amazement had greatly dissipated.

Wang Yutian was floating above the scattered Alchemic Sovereigns, staring down with an imposing glare, intense and unfeeling as if he was an illusion conjured by a mystical formation. A few of the scattered Alchemic Sovereigns tried to speak to him, but his expression and tone remained unchanged as he repeated his announcement. They, as he had long ago, believed Wang Yutian to be an automaton of some sort.

Seeing his short and hovering form, pretending to have no advanced sentience, Wei Wuyin couldn't help but grow increasingly nostalgic. In Golden Milk City on the Myriad Yore Continent, Wei Wuyin encountered a youngster that would lead him to a strange isolated space-the Myriad War Dao Palace. While there, Wei Wuyin understood Saber Intent and obtained Element, his Nascent Saber Soul, meeting Wang Yutian for the very first time.

It was only later that Wei Wuyin would realize that, by heavenly design, he had met Lin Ming. On the same day of Lin Ming's death, meeting Wang Yutian again felt almost deliberate, as if it was a perfect circle of fate. While he might be stretching it, the fact remained that events aligned quite peculiarly.

First Calamity: Survived - 7/7.

Second Calamity: Claimed - 1/1.

Third Calamity: Claimed - 3/3.

Fourth Calamity: Suppressed - 19 Years.

Karmic Luck Value: 195,754-0.

The thunderous sound preluding heavenly punishment resounded throughout Wei Wuyin's senses. His expression remained unchanged, but internally, he couldn't help but become curious. What will happen now?

According to his past experiences, the death of a Blessed required a form of punishment typically in the form of instilled sin, but as an Inheritor of the Bloodline of Sin, he could not only resist such vicious bestowed, but gain from the deceased Blessed lingering karmic fortune. However, he had never instructed someone to slay a Blessed before. In fact, he had deliberately ensured that the Ascendants avoided doing so.

That said, Zuhei had killed Lin Ming; the descent of punishment was a sign that the Archaic Chosen's death was complete and permanent. However, Wei Wuyin had never once explicitly given the order for Zuhei to kill Lin Ming, simply to redeem himself. Wei Wuyin knew that it was difficult for the Heavenly Daos to gauge his intent with the protections of the Bloodline of Sin, so he wondered if only the words spoken or communicated throughout the heavens would be considered in judgment.

Will Zuhei become a Sinner?

The thunderous boom was far away, clearly concentrated on Zuhei and not him.

Ohn! Ohn!

Sensing the Bloodline of Sin activate, his body enveloped in the Bloodline of Sin's unique sinful form, Wei Wuyin slightly frowned. He looked at the Bloodline of Sin tattoo while the rest of the world was frozen by the Heavenly Daos' unfathomable power. As someone far too experienced with the Heavenly Daos' power, even having entered the River of Time and surviving, Wei Wuyin was unaffected from the very beginning.

First Calamity: Survived - 7/7.

Second Calamity: Claimed - 1/1.

Third Calamity: Claimed - 3/3.

Fourth Calamity: Suppressed - 19 Years.

Karmic Luck Value: 195,754-0.

He expected the Fourth Calamity's date to be reduced by a few years if the Heavenly Daos could tether Zuhei with his order, as the soldier was never punished, only the commanders regardless of the sinful act. What happened next actually surprised Wei Wuyin!

His body was covered by dark-red symbols and the strange circle with various runic markings and esoteric sigils shot out a ghastly ray of sinful light with a tinge of gold. The Sinful Eye! The light vanished as soon as it reached a few tens of feet away from him, traversing across time and space to arrive above Zuhei. It formed a faint umbrella of sinful light, tanking the Heavenly punishment, inundating the umbrella in a golden heavenly glow.

First Calamity: Survived - 7/7.

Second Calamity: Claimed - 1/1.

Third Calamity: Claimed - 3/3- Fourth Calamity: Suppressed - 19 Years.

Karmic Luck Value: 195,754.0 -» 195,753.1.

"..." Then, against all his expectations, the Heavenly Daos' Heavenly Descent strangely ended alongside its power of halting the flow of time. The world resumed its typical flow of time, and Wei Wuyin stood there looking at the Bloodline of Sin tattoo baffled.

First Calamity: Survived - 7/7.

Second Calamity: Claimed - 1/1.

Third Calamity: Claimed - 3/3.

Fourth Calamity: Suppressed - 19 Years.

Karmic Luck Value: 195,753-1-

There was no change to his Fourth Calamity date, not even when he expanded upon its years to include weeks, days, even hours, and minutes! Not even a change in the seconds! He had only lost 0.9 Karmic Luck Value. This strange development was new and unprecedented. At first, Wei Wuyin was unable to exactly understand what just happened, but as he thought on the topic more and more, he came to realize something.

He didn't gain any Karmic Luck Value!

"...Did the Bloodline of Sin nullify the Heavenly Punishment by exhausting an equal or set amount of Karmic Luck Value from me? Does this mean Lin Ming was out of Karmic Luck Value or..." Wei Wuyin's thought process soon became a raging whirlwind as he guessed on the implications of this.

Did the Heavenly Daos consider him as the Commander or was this a result of the Bloodline of Sin protecting those with Karmic Ties from punishment?

He was unable to properly determine the truth despite exhausting an enormous amount of mental energy. The main obstacle here was the severe lack of information, and since this was the first time someone with Karmic Ties with him had ever slayed a Blessed individual directly, he was unable to determine the exact truth.

Even after he used the Ascendant Saint Rings to directly have Zuhei come in contact with his Soul's Aura, a method he had used to scoop Karmic Value during the sinner hunts recently, there was no change with the tattoo or world. So by this process of elimination, he could determine that the Heavenly Daos had not gauged his intent or classified him as a general, lobbying Zuhei with the heavenly punishment alone, otherwise, he'd have been targeted.

This aligned with the Bloodline of Sin's known powers.

"If I were to consider the likely possibility, then: the Bloodline of Sin can nullify Heavenly Punishment through Karmic Luck Value exhaustion." Wei Wuyin thoughtfully concluded alongside his Second Mind's deductive reasoning.

"Do you think this lends our hypothesis some substance?" Within Wei Wuyin's Sea of Consciousness, within the Palace of Eden, his Second Mind thoughtfully asked. Despite sharing similar knowledge, the two often had differing thoughts on various subjects, especially before their memories and thoughts aligned as one. At the moment, besides critically filtered information, Wei Wuyin hadn't infused the Second Mind with any of his idle thoughts lately, truly causing a difference in thought processes.

Still, they were the same.

"Hm," Wei Wuyin rubbed his chin; the hypothesis that the two had thought of was that the Bloodline of Sin tattoo and its powers could be 'actively' controlled instead of 'passively' used as he had been doing thus far and that he was an abnormality amongst Inheritors of Sin due to the way he inherited the Bloodline of Sin and being a Blessed previously.

Otherwise, why would he have conflicting interests in extracting Sin from Sinners to cultivate and killing Sinners to gain Karmic Luck Value from the Bloodline of Sin and Heavenly Daos respectively. Doing the former would eliminate the possibility of achieving the latter. But for the Bloodline of Sin, killing Blessed gains Karmic Luck Value through thieving, and the Heavenly Daos tried energetically to prevent conflict between Blessed.

Simply two diametrically opposed missions.

"The Bloodline of Sin could defend against Heavenly Punishment from yourself and those with Karmic Ties with you, steal from Blessed, and energetically use Karmic Luck Value to seek out fortune. It's more likely than before." While he couldn't be entirely certain, this discovery had opened an entire doorway of potential possibilities. The only missing link was likely his cultivation had yet to reach the level of the Realm of Sages! The lowest level for Inheritors of Sin, as said by the Black Skeleton!

Thinking up to here, Wei Wuyin let loose an internal sigh of relief. He would no longer have to worry about his Ascendants or those with Karmic Ties with him becoming Sinners and being schemed against by the Heavenly Daos, sent to and fed to Blessed if true. And the more he thought about it, the greater the possibility seemed.

"The Everclash shall begin in five minutes! Ready yourselves, Alchemists."

Just as that announcement resounded, allowing him to ease his thoughts out of such a complex topic, Wei Wuyin heard Wang Yutian's voice through spiritual transmission.

"You're finally awake? Haha. Long time no see!"

Wei Wuyin smiled, lifting his gaze to see the floating Wang Yutian giving him a look. While to the other Alchemic Sovereigns, his gaze was utterly dominating and stiffly mechanical, Wei Wuyin saw the glint of emotion and intelligence within.

Just as he was about to reply, through the crowd of Alchemic Sovereigns, he heard a voice that he actually expected!

"It's you?!"

Turning to its origins, Wei Wuyin saw a head full of navy-blue hair and an exceptionally beautiful face, only marred by their frown of surprise and uncertainty.