As the days waded through the river of time, each coming after the other, the conflicts of the Evercrown Ceremony continued without decline. Before long, seventeen days had passed and nearly a full month had eclipsed the ceremony.
Out of the seven fragments, six had been found.
The first was found by San Yongli. In a tundra of snowy storms and blasting frost, she extracted the Aspect of Extraction from within the mouth of an inactive icy beast. She had done so without the notice of others, remaining undiscovered as the benefits of the Aspect of Extraction were enjoyed thoroughly.
The second was discovered by Yi Yun. With the luck of the heavens on his side, he had inadvertently found the Aspect of Growth while exploring a forest region. He had escaped the pursuit of those from beyond the Sealed Region, using his cunning and patience to seize this incomparable treasure. To this day, he was being hunted.
The third was found by a long-deceased human of the Sealed Region. They were besieged by a Titan and a Celestial, easily slayed, and then fought over by the two until only one remained. The Titan lost their life to The Archer, refusing to surrender the Aspect of Containment. The Archer then lost it to the Dragonborn Saintess in a fair battle. The Dragonborn Saintess was then discovered and surrendered the fragment to the Claws and Fangs of the Ascendant Emperor.
The fourth had been claimed from the clutches of now-deceased Chosen from the World Beyond, their bodies ravaged by indescribable carnage, the Aspect of Refinement finding itself in Zuhei's hands. The Claws and Fangs of the Ascendant Emperor possessed two fragmented Aspects of the Evercrown's Alchemic Dao.
The fifth, the Aspect of Creation, was seized quietly by a figure of light. Despite the fighting that surrounded it, involving hundreds of Chosen from the various races, a being of light arrived, sent a few Chosen on their way to Hell, and vanished as a ray of light soaring into the horizon without uttering a single word, shaking the very foundations of their hearts and souls. Baffled and frustrated, the Chosen tried to give chase but to no avail.
The sixth was the most contested. An intense chase where the fragment endlessly exchanged hands which ran from the sea regions to the forest regions to the desert regions unfolded. It was particularly intense, with countless Chosen dying or suffering catastrophic foundation-damaging injuries while trying to obtain the fragment, the Aspect of Transformation. It all started with a single woman.
Even now, the chase continued as countless Chosen fought for what they could see. The Aspect of Transformation was one of the most exceptional aspects, likely within the top two of all fragments, solely due to its reasons of being able to transform any Mortal-rank product into the transcendent-quality, and this ability grew stronger with each merging of the fragments!
If three fragments are gathered, it's said to be able to transform Mortal-rank products, if they were derived from Mystic-Earth graded products, into their Mystic-Earth graded variations! The mystical power was enough to have literal Mystic Overlords launch century-long wars, let alone these Chosen.
Moreover, this ability kept growing stronger!
In every Evercrown Ceremony since its inception, this particular fragment had always been the center of the grandest and most brutal of battles leading to the largest loss of life. Even now, there was no exception to this.
The last fragment remained unclaimed. The Aspect of Fusion was always the most difficult to find and only when three fragments have been fused will it reveal itself to the world. This had always been the rule of the Evercrown Ceremony!
With twenty-seven days having passed, Alchemists and Evil Sentinels were being released en masse. After twenty-seven days, any unfused fragments lost their power, so to reignite their strength, they had to be fused! The structure of the Evercrown Ceremony was meant to promote competition, but the essence of its foundation, to merge the fragments into the crown had never been abandoned.
This inevitably divided the competition into four stages. The initial stage was twenty-seven days, which involved finding the fragments. The next stage consisted of twenty-seven days as well, which involved merging the fragments, often turning the six found pieces into three, leading to the awakening of the last fragment. The third stage similarly consisted of twenty-seven days, the last process of merging where the four fragments were turned into two.
The last day was the final stage, where two fragments became one whole, and the Evercrown was reborn to the world. The grand ceremony would have to take place in the span of the last remaining day, a total of twenty-four hours, which often involved the most intense part of the Evercrown Ceremony as well as its finale!
Those who were fortunate enough to extract the greatest benefits from the fragments were now left with depowered pieces of metal, seemingly worthless and lacking all their former brilliance.
The most unfortunate was the Aspect of Transformation. Since the dawn of its discovery, the object had been rife with scheming conflict and bloody battles. In the end, the fragment was taken by a group of Celestial Chosen led by a figure that had, shockingly, had similar qualities as the 76th Noble Prince.
This Celestial Chosen should have aged out of the competition by twenty or so years, yet here she was; furthermore, she was an Earthly Saint! If it hadn't been for several dozen Chosen at the Demi-Mortal Lord Phase joining together desperately, resisting steadily, there was a great chance that they could have all been wiped out. If it wasn't for the unwillingness to expend valuable Mystic Power from this Celestial Chosen, the battle would have ended sooner.
Fortunately for those struggling, Evil Sentinels and other Earthly Saints observed from a distance with ill intent, forcing the Celestial Chosen to restrain her mighty usage of her powers lest she fell to their shadowy schemes. It was through her deliberately slow-paced attacks, leaving no opportunity for other Earthly Saints to interfere and obtain an advantage that the Celestial Chosen had been able to seize the fragment. She acted with great timing, acquiring the fragment without those lurking in the shadows being able to take advantage of the situation.
As if agreed upon beforehand, as the fragment depowered on the last day, the search for Alchemists within the Containers entered full force. The Chosen from the World Beyond moved at a speedy pace as alliances formed. Eventually, news of those in possession of the fragments came to light, including the origins of the Mortals that were shockingly present.
The half-human, half-elven hybrid Mortal from the Sealed Regions possessed the Aspect of Growth.
The Dragonborn Saintess of the Sealed Regions had lost their fragment to a bare-footed, silver-haired beastman who sat atop a dirt hill, meditating silently without moving a single inch. No one acted against the beastman, wanting to avoid another great battle, after learning of his location, seemingly waiting for the Alchemists and another fragment to be brought forth, but many groups from the World Beyond surrounded this beastman with anticipation.
With their eyes locked onto him, they simply needed to wait and those in alliance with the top figures would be able to enjoy a merged fragment at full power. The air was rife with expectation and greed.
The beastman in question remained entirely unaffected.
After learning of the origins of these mortals, none of the World Beyond Chosen underestimated them. They were highly irregular, and the Violet Mountain Demonic Spawn of a woman had slaughtered the 76th Noble Prince using a set of unfathomably powerful treasures. There was ongoing speculation that they contained profound powers of Original Magistrates, Ascended beings at the Heavenly Saint Phase!
Moreover, this wasn't an isolated case. The Chosen from the World Beyond had suffered endlessly at these mortals' hands, often losing the chance opportunities throughout the Evercrown Ceremony's vast lands. There was an enchantingly, alluring, and heart-throbbing gorgeous woman who was believed to be a premium Yin Cauldron of a peak Chosen; she cultivated in a blessed yin grounds, but when a few brazen male cultivators sought to take advantage of this situation, they lost their lives in such a brutal fashion that the area itself had been classified as a 'Forbidden Zone' by most Chosen.
They say the heads of those brazen few were floating in the sky as a bloody warning to all those who approached.
There was an elven woman who wore glasses that was extremely vicious, trapping Chosen in strange, hidden formations and forcing them to strip down to absolutely nothing for their lives, and then kicking them out after damaging their foundations.
An extremely handsome hazel-golden-eyed young man was seizing opportunities from all over and had even slaughtered one of the 'aged' Chosen at the Earthly Saint Phase after they contested over a blessed ground. They say the exceptional mortal wielded Laws with each hand and deployed dozens of formations in the blink of an eye, suppressing his opponent from beginning to end!
From time to time, Solar Stars manifested in the originally starless sky. The Chosen would make it a habit of attacking these stars, hoping to obliterate these World-Bound Star Domains and damage the foundations of a few of these strange Mortals. They succeeded a few times, with a few Solar Stars blowing up directly, scattering across the Evercrown Ceremony's vast lands and temporarily creating a rain of blessed solar essence.
However, there was a time when a few Chosen decided to attack a Solar Star as if by instinct, but this star wasn't destroyed! Instead, it unleashed rays of searing light that scorched the attackers down to their bones. The sight sent chills down everyone's spines! Moreover, this Solar Star was dwarf-sized, and among those burned was another 'aged' Chosen at the Earthly Saint Phase! While none of them died directly, they lost considerable power and lifeforce recovering, and some had been taken advantage of and killed outright by other Chosen.
Since then, the Chosen from the World Beyond didn't dare to casually attack World-Bound Star Domains anymore.
Moreover, Mortals that were hiding weren't attacked carelessly as before. A harsh lesson had drilled itself too often in these Chosen as the tails of those who barely escaped with their lives, some without clothes, and others with damaged foundations, spread their stories.
But there was an additional topic traversing across these vast lands: The Ascendant Emperor of Neo-Dawn! It didn't take long for these Chosen to discover that these Mortals belonged to a mortal Worldly Saint by the name of Wei Wuyin, also titled the Ascendant Emperor of Neo-Dawn and the Neo-Dawn Alchemic Saint!
It was extremely hard to describe the extent of their shock after hearing of such a prodigious figure's existence. It had reached a point where some even proclaimed that Wei Wuyin simply didn't exist, and these stories of his feats were merely made up!
For those who believed these stories, their belief was backed by further stories from freed Alchemists of the young man with silver eyes that blasted through the Everclash at a heaven-shaking pace!
Word soon began to spread: "Wei Wuyin was in a container!"
Somehow, this spurred a greater burst of activity as countless Chosen redoubled their efforts in freeing Alchemists. They even believed he would have the most absurd condition, so they scoured ravenously for difficult containers. As they did, two Evil Sentinels at the Earthly Saint were freed as well as dozens of Ascended beings at the Demi-Mortal Lord and Soul of Mysticism level. The chaos that was unleashed was bloody and violent!
And this verified once again that this Chosen King Competition was definitely far different than any other!
On the thirtieth day of the Evercrown Ceremony.
In a cubical container, Wei Wuyin was being taken advantage of as Wen Mingna pressed her soft lips against his, trickling bits of radiantly golden energy into his mouth. Her movements were practiced as if she had done this a thousand times, clearly very familiar with how Wei Wuyin's lips liked to move and where to exert pressure.
It had been three minutes since Wen Mingna had said she needed to transmit some details of her newly changed Cultivation Method to verify its and her comprehensions validity, and while she could have sent all of it in just a 'few milliseconds', she adamantly said that slowly doing so would better help 'digestion' and include 'all of it'. Wei Wuyin didn't dare to expose her.
He could only hold her body by the waist and lower back, lifting her slightly, as she pressed her entire body against his, allowing their body heat to be exchanged alongside feeling each other's heartbeat. Oddly enough, while his heart roared like a great dragon and hers was like the hymn of the heavens, their heartbeats were in total sync.
Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum!
A unique music was formed.
It was only after the last trickling bit was exchanged that she left, giving a light, gentle peck on his lips that showcased her reluctance. Wei Wuyin couldn't resist smiling as he eyed Wen Mingna's countenance who looked innocent as if everything she did was perfectly within reason.
Drip.
Before he could say anything, both of them tilted their heads upwards as they looked directly at the sky.
A figure was currently hovering directly above them. A drop of blood has splashed on the container.
"Fo..." the figure tried to speak but they soon lost power.
Whoosh!
They fell from the sky.
BOOM!
In a heavy thud, the figure slammed onto the roof of the cubical container.
