Paragon of Sin

"This is…?!" Wu Yu was slowly pushing the cocoon of mystic energies through the Dark Void, executing an exquisitely refined concealment art that blended him and the cocoon with fixed space. With his aura subdued, he wasn't moving too fast nor had to remain too focused, so he could inspect the events occurring within the cocoon.

What he saw sent his heart racing and his mind rumbling without end. "How does he…?" Wu Yu questioned deeply, feeling the greatest urge to ask the only question plaguing his mind, but just as his spiritual energies were about to formulate into a transmission, he halted himself with haste. That question shouldn't be asked.

Everyone had their own secrets, and Wei Wuyin certainly had more than most. After taking a deep breath to steady his mind, he kept trucking along silently. He decided to focus his mental energy towards trying to recall why the aura of that individual's aura following them felt familiar.

Several days later, the small-sized white Voidship was halted in the Dark Void, clearly having ran out of fuel. A ship that small and fast required a continuous replacement of astral stones to function or a supply of energies, but without Wu Yu ensuring it had that steady infusion, it soon came to an abrupt halt.

Currently, three violet-colored Voidships of medium-size and low-quality were circling the white Voidship like sharks. They had their onboard cannons trained on the small-sized ship and sent continuous spiritual transmissions for its immediate surrender. They were clearly Void Pirates operating in the Everlore Domain's territory. Considering the quality of their ships, they were either too weak or new to the profession.

However, after several minutes, there was no reply from the ship causing the three pirate ships to grow surprisingly quiet. The quality of the small-sized Voidship was relatively high, so they were clearly afraid that a powerful cultivator was isolated within, performing on-travel secluded cultivation. Due to the absurd prices to use Void Gates, powerful experts would stack their cultivation time with their traveling time.

Still, this white ship was far too high-quality for them to merely give up on it without being certain of its dangers. What if it was abandoned? They weren't pirates because it was fun, but simply due to having no choice! Cultivation was difficult, and resources were all controlled by the powerful forces, so obtaining a path to the peak yourself was fraught with untold dangers. If you lacked innate talent, you would be left high-and-dry. And if you had decent talent, you still wouldn't receive as much as those less talented family members.

Nepotistic practices were far too standard amongst the high-level forces. Only those superbly talented could etch out their own paths and establish themselves. This type of environment propagated a sense of desperation. While the environment of the Aeternal Sky Starfield was the richest of the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region's starfields, cultivating strictly off its ambient energies and essences was a sure path to dying of old age with no achievements, especially if one lacked talent.

The three pirate ships began to make their move. Their top-tier experts at the Light Reflection Phase, the Fifth Stage of the Astral Core Realm, decided to embark to survey the ship. Their bravery was commendable!

Suddenly, a figure shimmered into existence above the white Voidship. "...Abandoned?" The figure glanced at the figures attempting to board the white voidship using various tools to generate false artificial atmospheres around their bodies. A much-needed astral-graded tool to replicate the qualities of a Voidship's atmosphere and a Worldly Domain's ability to ward off the Dark Chill of the Void.

The figure observed these pirates and then waved his hand. The protective atmosphere of these tools was punctured, and the Dark Chill of the Void flooded in as they gawked in horror and terror. They were immediately inundated by the chill that claimed their lives with little resistance.

Unlike the Dark Chill of the Void in the Desolate Dragnet Stellar Region, the chill here was far, far stronger. Even Realmlords would perish if they were unprotected by their Worldly Domains.

The crew all gaped with horror at the unexpected demise of their leaders. Two of the second-in-commands hurriedly ordered the crew to try to reclaim their bodies, while a smarter one realized the strangeness of this situation and gave orders to escape. Unfortunately, the figure waved his hand once again and the formations of the three pirate ships all deactivated.

The crew could only scream and shout for a brief moment as the chill flooded them too.

The figure ignored the corpses he caused, flickering forward like a shadow to arrive on the white Voidship's deck. They performed a hand-seal, and a wave of invisible power swept the ship with extreme speed. The power hurriedly returned and entered the figure's body.

"He noticed?" The figure was baffled by this discovery. From his senses, it's been several days since a living being had situated themselves on this voidship. This meant they had left long ago. A chuckle suffused with anger and self-mockery emanated from the figure, and they stomped their feet. The voidship crumbled into dust, fragmented into uncountable pieces.

Standing amid the destruction, the figure lingered for a long while as cold corpses floated past them. "Was the cultivation method of the clan really leaked? If only this weren't the Everlore Domain, tch! Such a fucking mess…"

The figure concealed itself within fixed space and seemingly vanished without a trace. If Wu Yu were to see this, he would instantly recognize this art!

The Everlore Domain was an expansive territory with twenty-six planets of varying sizes and forty-four lunar satellites. If one calculated the World Realms, the population was slightly beyond three quadrillions in terms of all living creatures. This included the Elven Sanctuary, which housed the entirety of the Elven Race and had a single planet and four moons to themselves.

Each planet of the Everlore Domain was abnormally wealthy, a sign of a prospering economy. Furthermore, it worshiped the Alchemic Dao. The Everlore Domain had borne more Mortal Sovereign Alchemists than any other individual Domain, including the Imperial Clan's. However, the atmosphere of competition was heavy, and there was only a single alchemist organization that could function in the Everlore Domain—the Everlore Association.

With all the potential talents funneled into their force, their status as the alchemic capital of the Aeternal Sky Starfield was greatly deserved. This was further bolstered by their outstanding legacy and success during the years, such as the one-and-only King of Everlore, his rumored disciple—the Sky Zenith Alchemic Saint, and the Evergod Pill Saint.

Despite the Sky Zenith Alchemic Saint's allegiance being aligned with the Imperial Clan, far too many considered her a part of the Everlore Association's legacy. Furthermore, she never rejected such considerations, and neither did the Everlore Association. This only heightened the veracity of those rumors.

There was a medium-sized planet with a single lunar satellite orbiting it within the Domain. It was the most recently created planet of the Everlore Association, minus Planet Everlore formed at the far-reaches of the Domain's edge. It was named Rainbow Sky.

This name was deliberate because its sole purpose was to generate a proper environment to develop the high-end astral-graded material named the Rainbow Dao Essence Ore. This ore contained the qualities of seven intents that could be used for certain alchemical products or forging tools. There were hundreds of mountains that resembled the Scarlet Solaris Mountain that emanated the seven material essences. They ranged from red to violet in color.Near the planetary core of Rainbow Sky, where all these mountains were interconnected through a brilliantly designed formation, the Rainbow Dao Essence Ore would form.

At the moment, four figures—two men, one woman, and an avian beast—were situated by a lake with clear waters. The beast was resting atop the water with its eyes closed, its wings wide, and it slowly floated across the surface as the fishes danced around it. From time to time, a fish would leap out and land in the beast's mouth as if they were willingly becoming its food.

One of the men, a middle-aged and dastardly handsome man, held a fishing pole and a conical hat as he whistled in a carefree manner.

The other two were a young woman and man seated in the lotus position across from each other by the lakeside. They were none other than Bai Lin, Wu Yu, Wen Mingna, and Wei Wuyin!

After evading an unexpected tail, the four settled at the nearest planet and decided to rest. At the moment, Wen Mingna had not only regained her natural beauty, but she exuded an extremely high-quality vibrant energy that far exceeded normal. Her innate life energies were absolutely brimming to the limits, and even her cultivation seemingly improved.

Her eyes were bright and energetic, yet those eyes could not be seen as she performed a series of hand-seals with them emanating boundless golden light. Around her, nine golden orbs circulated in strange trajectories. They resembled worlds and emanated a distinct resemblance to the innate aura of World Domains.

Wei Wuyin was deeply intrigued as he observed these orbs. He realized these orbs were slowly devouring strands of lifeforce in minute quantities from Wen Mingna. He had read the Ritualistic Fate of the Nine Worlds Method, but it only stated that intense divination attempts consumed lifeforce due to the backlash, and typically this would result in an incomplete divination or a failed one.

However, Wen Mingna was exhibiting the usage of lifeforce while performing her divination arts. This intrigued Wei Wuyin as she was clearly using a different method than the Ritualistic Fate of the Nine Worlds. Moreover, wisps of World Pressure were enamating from each of these orbs as if they were actual worlds.

After several minutes, those orbs ceased their erratic orbits and began to rapidly rotate. Surging winds buffeted the environment, and the lake's waters were rippling away. Wen Mingna's body slowly lifted from the ground as her robes fluttered about, tightening around her body and revealing her curves. If the situation wasn't of the utmost importance, Wei Wuyin might've admired this scene.

After Wen Mingna lost sixty years of lifeforce, the orbs stopped spinning and exploded into bits of glossy golden light without warning. These bits of light were like fragmented glass, and they funneled into Wen Mingna's glabella.

"Oh!" Wei Wuyin couldn't hold his astonishment as Wen Mingna's lifeforce was returned to her. She hadn't lost a single second of life. 'Did she fail?'

Wen Mingna slowly descended and landed without incident. She slowly revealed those clear, energetic, and bright eyes of hers. This caused Wei Wuyin's heart to thump slightly, but he regulated his thinking extremely quickly as he asked: "Succeeded?"

Wen Mingna solemnly nodded, "I did. Moreover, I found the source."

Wei Wuyin's mind stirred. He had originally sought Wen Mingna out to find the elven woman he had met during his hectic escape from that female Realmlord on the Four Extreme Continent. He had met her and another, and they were intrigued by what he stole to obtain the dogged pursuit of a Realmlord, and to buy time, he revealed the formation spell of the Eye of Immortality.

The elven woman, Ai Shenwu, had inadvertently revealed that it bore remarkable similarities to a spell called the Everlasting Spirit of the Nine Flames. It was a tiny blip, a short period of less than two minutes, but he had forgotten about it later because it was a relatively dead-end. The technique bore a resemblance to the Eye of Immortality, but only that, bore a resemblance to its spell formation.

He couldn't cultivate it due to the Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity's overbearing nature, so he left after learning about the Holy Candidate Trial. However, facing this problem, he recalled that Ai Shenwu had mentioned that it was derived from a spell belonging to their Divinities.

According to her, it was left behind during the creation of their world, but the original spell was designed for the Divinity. If he weren't facing his current crisis, he would've ignored this detail for quite a while, but if the Everlasting Spirit of Nine Flames was a derivative of a spell that resembles the Eye of Immortality, then perhaps the original spell was the Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity!

There could be a complete record of the method and perhaps a way to improve it! It was a long shot, a very long shot, but he had to take it. He had no other option.

Wen Mingna paused for a moment, glancing at Wei Wuyin with a strange, unconcealed emotion. She couldn't help but say: "Lord W-"

"You can call me Wei Wuyin," Wei Wuyin interrupted her with a warm smile.

"...!" Wen Mingna was startled for a moment; her heart momentarily went aflutter with emotions, but she was exceptionally sharp and quick-witted, so she didn't dwell and nodded. "Wei Wuyin, you transferred some of your cultivation to me; perhaps you should rest and recover first."

Wen Mingna was slightly worried about Wei Wuyin, knowing the cost of transferring one's cultivation personally. Moreover, her Astral Core was originally 11 centimeters while at the Fifth Stage of the Astral Core Realm, twenty-two times larger than the average Sixth Stage Astral Core Realm cultivator. But now, her Astral Core had reached 30.5 Centimeters in a few days, almost tripling. Clearly, Wei Wuyin hadn't just replenished her lifeforce but devoted a portion of his innate energies into her body.

Wei Wuyin faintly smiled, "No need to worry, my cultivation base is still stable and firm." While he calmly said this, he had lost seven centimeters off each Astral Core, revealing that the cost to do so safely was stupendously high. Still, she deserved this and more. Unfortunately, her body couldn't handle further infusion, so he had to halt so she could consolidate her cultivation base.

She looked at Wei Wuyin with a narrowed gaze as if trying to divine the truth from his closed-eyed expression. Her attempts failed and she could only sigh in her heart; a distinct feeling of warmth swelled within her. She kept her expression calm, not blushing like ordinary girls would, and stayed focused.

"The source of the derived spell belonging to Ai Shenwu of the Elven Race…its located within the Elementus Domain."

"Elementus Domain?" Wei Wuyin slightly frowned. Wu Yu's head turned as well.

Wen Mingna nodded, but her gaze became slightly solemn, "Yes, the Elementus Domain. I had to execute an additional scrying spell to locate its exact location. It was well-protected. If it weren't for this, it would've been much easier. If what I've seen is true, then it's on planet Origin, within the True Element Sect."

"..."