The City of Guardians!
Wei Wuyin basked in its majesty, from its artistic walls decorated with glowing runes, the numerous skyscrapers heading towards the sky of this strange world, and its vastness that didn't pale in the slightest to the City of Endless. After a long, long journey cooped up in a wad of spatial power, Wei Wuyin enjoyed this sight.
"..." Unfortunately, his travel companion didn't feel the same. Liu Suyin immediately walked forward, approaching the tall, imposing gate of the city. They were still a mile or two out, so they had a walk ahead of them. Stretching lightly, Wei Wuyin looked in the direction toward the City of Endless.
The heavy feeling of being observed remained, indicating that Liu Yinlan's senses were firmly attached to his existence even now. She was paying close attention, watching his every move, counting down the days until the arbitrarily decided upon twelve months came to an end. It was difficult to have any comfort of mind when a Worldly Saint was watching so intently. However, there was a silver lining here.
Liu Yinlan needed him; this was all a show to reduce Wei Wuyin's resistance towards accepting the responsibilities of a Destined. If he was her, he knew what he'd do. If so, then this long, tedious travel between cities likely had some underlying purpose. If he had to guess…
His eyes returned to the grand majesty of the City of Guardians. 'I would use this time to orchestrate godly cultivation conditions, breathtaking short-term gains, and heavenly long-term benefits to lure my target into a lull of awe, greed, and hope. Most importantly, the hope to obtain one's freedom despite the restrictions.'
During their conversation, Wei Wuyin demonstrated a strong will, a sense of pride, and an unshakeable belief in his own talent and promising future. This was all deliberately done, a way to instill a certain image, but that's not to say he wasn't all of those things. After learning of the rules, laws, and oaths governing this place, he wanted to leverage his importance and obtain the maximum amount of benefits in the shortest period.
And Liu Yinlan had fallen for this. She took the bait while preparing her own. Now, he was curious how this would all unfold, given she had over a month to prepare this meaty bait to draw his attention. And in truth, he was quite hungry.
"You shouldn't underestimate a Worldly Saint." Within his Sea of Consciousness, the voice of Heavenly War Spirit's golden egg cautioned. Over the last month and a half, the two had spent almost all of that time together.
"I won't," Wei Wuyin reassured. While he lightly joked about being able to escape from a Heavenly Saint to Ye Ziling, he wasn't foolish to overestimate himself or underestimate any foe. He was but a mere mortal; it would only take a single breath of effort, and these Ascended beings could turn him into forgotten dust before he could blink.
Wei Wuyin finished his stretch and began to follow Liu Suyin to the city. The woman devoid of emotions emitted a forbidding, unapproachable chill now, not speaking a single word to him since their trip began. Her indifferent facade was shattering, revealing an image of jealousy and dissatisfaction—quite an ugly image for a beautiful woman.
Wei Wuyin could only sigh in his heart at her distant attitude. After all, she was a vital piece in one of his plans to escape from this situation. Fortunately, the Heavenly War Spirit was there to keep him company during those days, and they had much to talk about.
Most importantly, an explanation about what those terms it used earlier meant. For example, what was a link to a Law exactly? He expected a heavy dose of indiscernible strings of words and complex terms that couldn't be properly explained to mortals. After all, this was typical for advanced aspects of cultivation vastly exceeding the Mortal Dao. Shockingly, it wasn't diluted by mysteriousness.
The official term of a link to a Law was called the Heavenly Resonance of the Three Thousand Realms, and the act of calling upon this power was called an Edict of the Sage. These two names were spoken in a language that caused Wei Wuyin's mind to tumble, and he knew that it wasn't said in mortal language or Mysticism.
However, at the time, he could feel his two gooey Seeds of Law vibrate as if they were working heavily to decipher and translate these foreign words. Similar to how his Mystic Rune Seeds had given him a faint familiarity with Mysticism, it seemed his Seeds of Law were similarly effective, yet also far, far stronger than those fragmented Mystic Rune Seeds.
But hearing these terms made him realize something! Something that pounded his heart so heavily that his sense of hearing drowned in it.
This was the first time EVER that he learned of any clues remotely close to the Realm of Sages! Heavenly Resonance of Three Thousand Realms? An Edict of the Sage?! He would be a fool not to realize that these two terms were linked to the Realm of Sages. A hope was fostered in his heart. He was a step closer.
The Heavenly War Spirit continued its explanations. Firstly, it explained laws. But while he received an answer to his questions, he couldn't quite understand it. It had little to do with any language barrier, but that it was simply too profound. All he understood was that the Laws were a great force of the known world, and everything beneath the heavens thrived and functioned on Laws.
At the moment, his two Seeds of Law were fledglings that would eventually spout into a source of power that could access this unimaginable power, like a fetus needing to be nurtured and grown. For an inexplicable reason, Wei Wuyin felt that this type of activity had a tinge of a sinister air about it. Whether it came from the Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity, Bloodline of Sin, his Heavenly Connection as a Blessed, or simply an innate instinct as a cultivator, he couldn't quite pinpoint, but it was definitely present.
At the Heavenly Saint Phase, with a heavy price, a cultivator could call forth the power of an Artificial Edict of the Sage, summoning a weaker version of the Heavenly Resonance of the Three Thousand Words, granting mortals the potential to form Seeds of Law far before they could so on their own. That said, the vast majority of these attempts failed.
For example, Ye Ziling hadn't formed a Seed of Law despite experiencing the baptism. But, a genuine Edict of the Sage would always generate a Seed of Law to whatever Law that it was connected to. It would then be on the cultivator to nurture this Seed of Law into a Minor Law, grasping this unimaginable force. At an unimaginably hefty price far greater than what an artificial link required, a Heavenly Saint could also establish a genuine link.
The Endless Void Mirror that Liu Suyin spoke of, according to the Heavenly War Spirit, was a Heavenly Treasure forged by Ascended beings at the True Sage or True Soul Phase, the eighth and ninth stage of the Mystic Ascendant Realm, respectively. A Supreme Heavenly Treasure could only be forged by existences beyond the Mystic Ascendant Realm. And the term 'Heavenly Treasure' was much the same as titles like Mortal Gods, Realmlords, or Realm of Sages. It denoted a degree of widely renowned status based on its abilities, and this referred to the ability to establish a connection with the Three Thousand Realms of Law, using their grand powers without a cultivator. The absence or addition of 'Supreme' separated those artificial links from the genuine ones.
This gave Wei Wuyin a glimpse as to what stage those three Ascended Sovereigns could be in. Of course, this Endless Void Mirror could've been an average treasure to them, used to casually seal up the threat, so he didn't dare to make firm conclusions.
According to the Heavenly War Spirit, the lengthy process of nurturing a Law required the Soul Light of a Spirit of Cultivation that matched the Law itself. As such, not just any cultivator could nurture any Seed of Law.
Of course, Wei Wuyin's first question was if the Alchemic Dao could bypass this limitation, to which the Heavenly War Spirit merely replied: "The Dao of Alchemy is limitless." And this more or less answered his question, but reaching the level to do so might be absurdly difficult.
Could the King of Everlore, a Heavenly Saint Alchemist, do so?
During these forty-odd days of travel, Wei Wuyin gradually infused his Formless Divinity Soul Light into the Seeds of Law. Surprisingly, they readily absorbed it without the slightest bit of rejection. Moreover, it worked for both seeds. However, when he tried to use King's Omega Saber Soul Light, it rejected it with a vigorous outburst that caused his soul to quiver for an entire week.
As if cleansing themselves of the Omega Saber Soul Light, the seeds refused any Soul Light, even the Formless Divinity Soul Light. After the week was over, it entered a depressing, being less substantial, and gooier state than before. It had regressed!
The Heavenly War Spirit chastised him for testing this himself despite her protests, and Wei Wuyin could hear the faintest of giggling smiles in her little girlish tone. However, it was deeply shaken when the cleansing process lasted a week, clearly taken aback after the Seed of Law had nearly destroyed itself to expel the Omega Saber Soul Light. It expected minor rejection, not such an aggressive response.
Wei Wuyin would later learn just how fortunate he was that he first used the Formless Divinity Soul Light to nurture the seeds for a long time before testing other Soul Lights, especially King's. If he hadn't, his two Seeds of Law would've been annihilated, wasting a 3,000 Karmic Luck Surge just like that.
