Bei Yinyin's sudden and lovely appearance stirred the Chosen from both worlds intensely. While Bei Yinyin was in a strange, ethereal state, her life aura within her eyes wasn't very difficult to gauge, and her age was easily seen through with some clues. Those large, bright eyes of hers were rife with inexperience, youthful exuberance, untainted innocence, and vibrant energy. She was a child by every stretch of their imagination.
But how?!
The Chosen King Competition had very limited ways to enter with strict requirements on strength or ability. For Bei Yinyin to be here, she would have to meet at least one of those! Right?
Moreover! MOREOVER! None of them sensed her at all! It was as if she was the darkness within their senses, unseen and neglected. The feeling of trying to recall instilled chills within their souls.
Bei Yinyin opened her outstretched arms with a purse of her lips, her body language screaming: "Gimme! Gimme! Please, Aunty! Gimme!" If her hands could speak, they certainly would be saying these exact words. She wanted that pretty tiara. She knew only princesses could wear those, and the idea of becoming a princess was like a dream.
Albeit, her thoughts would elicit only bitter chuckles from Ascendants. If there was a little princess of the Neo-Dawn Starfield, it would certainly be this little playful munchkin that traveled freely and caused some trouble here and there. They were all aware that her godfather was none other than His Majesty.
She was the candied apple of his eye, sweet and delicate. The fact she was here, unharmed, and allowed to move about freely was solely due to that incredible status.
Su Mei didn't bother with those who lost their will to fight for the Evercrown. These Chosen from the World Beyond had already begrudgingly given up on this opportunity. They all cherished their lives. Smartly so. As for those from the Sealed Region, they hadn't the strength nor the means to contest for ownership, so they could only huddle in their safe areas, trying to survive the potentially cataclysmic battle that could unfold.
"I'll let you wear it when we get back home," Su Mei softly said.
Bei Yinyin's eyes lit. She was half-expecting to be outright denied. Unlike others, Su Mei was a firm-type aunt, and she seldom allowed her to get away with her mischievousness. She even had a little fear in her heart toward this beautiful aunty, but the closeness they had was also more than others.
She pursed her lips excitedly, "Really? You promise?!"
Su Mei nodded, "Promise."
Bei Yinyin looked at the Evercrown with glittering eyes, and then outstretched her pinky, "Pinky promise?" As if this was as binding as a Heavenly Oath. Her ethereal figure suddenly grew corporeal.
Su Mei smiled, using her hand holding her scabbard, she met Bei Yinyin's pinky with her own, clasping them around each other. "Pinky promise."
"Mn! You promised!" Bei Yinyin excitedly reminded, ignorant of the bewildered and shocked gazes of those around her. Her figure turned ethereal once again. She began to skip into the air, using the mana as a platform inexplicably, and bounced toward Da Shan's gigantic form.
"Great Big Sis!"
Su Mei stared at the ground where Bei Yinyin had left. Her expression was calm, carrying a faint chill. There was a dark silhouette that remained stationary. "You want to try?" Su Mei asked, her eyes glittered. Her actions caused most to be confused.
"..." The shadow wiggled slightly, so subtly that even an Earthly Saint's level of Spiritual Sense wouldn't be able to perceive it.
"Sure," Su Mei replied. Suddenly, her body erupted in dark, violent gushing light, inducing a tempest of wind that blew back almost everyone within a thousand miles. Her strength was fully displayed at this moment as her Darklight Intent, Saber Intent, and a strange, heretical fluctuation manifested. They were all at the World Intent level!
Moreover, they were wildly powerful!
The dark radiance eclipsed the world's radiance. The sensation of being both unable to perceive light and blinded by light was inflicted on all those enveloped within. It was so strange and terrifying that cold sweat formed on the foreheads and backs of almost every individual affected.
The shadow wiggled.
Suddenly, the dark radiance receded like a tide, violently and without warning. The scene, within an extremely brief moment, regained its original state as if nothing had changed.
The shadow was gone.
Su Mei firmly clenched her saber's hilt. Her eyes were shining with rampant saber light, sharp enough to sever the heavens and earth, and carried the will to do so! She slowly closed her eyes.
"What in the heavens was that?!" Tula Yi couldn't hold back her words as she was drenched in cold sweat, her heart pounding violently, and extreme fear engulfed her heart. She wanted to retreat, but her feet simply wouldn't move. This wasn't limited to just her. The audience was entirely shaken.
Su Mei was stronger! The terror of this woman was never-ending! The lingering will to fight for the Evercrown was snuffed out at that moment.
Meanwhile, Wei Wuyin and Xue Yifei were watching from the sky like gods, observing the situation without being seen. They held hands like an immortal couple of the draconic lineage.
"Was that Shadow?" Xue Yifei asked, uncertainty within her words. She only knew of the two other Prime Ascendants that Wei Wuyin had only briefly spoken about.
Wei Wuyin nodded.
"Was that...the Aura of Law?" Xue Yifei asked curiously, familiar with Shui Fengbao's strange, heaven-reaching aura of fire. He seemed to embody something on a different scale of power at times, vastly surpassing cultivators of his cultivation stage due to it. He was truly the Child of Fire, utterly blessed by the Heavenly Realm of Fire. A genuine Chosen.
Wei Wuyin nodded.
Xue Yifei's heart raced slightly. The Shadow had grasped the power of Laws! She was endlessly curious. She hadn't been able to perceive what had happened between Su Mei and the Shadow. "Who won?"
"..." Wei Wuyin glanced at Su Mei who was calmly breathing, regulating her aura, and likely replaying their recent clash. "The light," he flatly replied.
Su Mei then opened her eyes at this moment, her entire body exuded a fiercely dominant aura of triumph and breakthrough. She seemed to have grasped something incredibly profound, experiencing a leap in strength. Within her eyes was a faint power that caused Wei Wuyin's six laws to thrum vigorously.
Their manifestations shivered within his Astral Cores, almost like there was a tinge of fear within.
Xue Yifei's eyes brightened. So Su Mei won!
However, it wasn't so simple. Wei Wuyin realized that Su Mei's aura and lifeforce were on the verge of being snuffed out by darkness and shadow. Only by relying on something strange within her did she resist the power of laws.
Laws were incredible and they functioned on a higher level than other forces. Wei Wuyin could rewrite or suppress formations through the Minor Authority of Imperial Law, having altered the rules forcefully of the Everclash with a single thought. It could cause a Void Wyrm to retreat with a single shout. Not all of this was the result of extreme, irresistibly mighty strength, but a profound power that affected things on an existential level.
However, Su Mei's aura had, for the briefest of moments, become vehemently resistant to that influence, greatly collapsing a considerable portion of its strength. This was odd. Incredibly odd.
However, it had determined the winner between them.
Su Mei breathed out softly as her aura calmed down. Then, she held the Evercrown. The last step was about to begin. However, she looked off to the sky. The two figures standing in the sky observing were clearly visible to her. Despite Wei Wuyin's shroud of concealment, merging with the environment on multiple levels of depth using the Minor Origin Law, he felt Su Mei's gaze on him immediately.
This perception would shake anyone else to their core, in much the same way that Wei Wuyin had once looked up at the sky after the Battlefield's conclusion. But Wei Wuyin had expected her uncanny ability to find him and replied with a smile through a mental transmission. "There's a little bit left before it happens. You can finish the process, and I'll delay the closure of the competition."
As he said this, Tian Yinwu had turned away from Su Mei who had unleashed a terrifying burst of strength. There was likely no one else who could contest Su Mei for the crown. He was feeling anxious as he rushed forward, trying to place the remaining flags in their locations. He even resorted to using Spiritual Movement Arts, blitzing across the world like a streak of golden lightning or a gust of silver wind.
Su Mei nodded and looked away. With no one else seemingly willing to die, Su Mei began to gather the Mortal Sovereign Alchemists from the safety of a few Saint Ring's Internal Worlds. Her movements only provoked a quiet observance. No one took action against her and she was free to retrieve every Ascendant of the Hepta-Dawn Alchemic Corps.
The effects of tethering the Evercrown to a Chosen King were extremely beneficial to the Alchemists participating. However, Su Mei was stringy with this benefit, deliberately ignoring all Alchemists not of the Hepta-Dawn Alchemic Corps without the slightest hesitation. In her eyes, none of them were relevant enough to share this boon.
Da Shan had shrunk to her eight-foot height, and she didn't seem to have any intentions of contesting for the Evercrown. In her eyes, she had already lost to Xue Yifei. The crown itself was unimportant. She was already thinking of ways to change her status.
Bei Yinyin was playfully between Da Shan's large twin mounds, seemingly treating them as pillows. Her actions elicited envy from many titans and Chosen from the Sealed Region. She was forcefully pulled away by Bei Weiwei, crying for Da Shan to save her as he held onto one of those fleshy mountains. Unfortunately, Bei Weiwei was the true older sister, and Bei Yinyin was taken away from her soft haven.
"You can't miss this!" Bei Weiwei scolded, carrying Bei Yinyin by her slender waist at the hip as the little girl pouted.
Su Mei brought along the Alchemists to the platform meant for the Evercrown Ceremony! It was a temple-like altar with seven gargantuan ascending steps, each of a different, abnormal color matching the seven aspects-Extraction, Growth, Containment, Refinement, Creation, Transformation, and Fusion-from bottom to top.
At the highest point was a ceremonial throne made of glistening crystalline material. It was of sufficient size to fit a member of the Titan Race. It was rather simple in design, lacking adornments of exquisite gems or runes. However, beneath the radiant solar light, it exuded a dazzling magnificence that was breathtaking to see.
At first glance, it felt as if a great king had once sat there, bestowing the Alchemic Dao to the world. The successive generations that possessed the right to sit there only allowed them to exist in his shadow. The greatness of that king was simply too much.
When Su Mei brought the Evercrown near, something revealed itself. At the base of the throne were a few characters etched within that had three distinctive lines. The first line read: "Cultivation is difficult; Alchemy is limitless."
The words were written with a level of frustration that countless cultivators faced. It was as if this King had nearly met their end at the hands of the dreary, merciless path of cultivation, but the second part showcased a degree of indomitable will to challenge this path and survive! No, to THRIVE!
The second line read: "Form the Spirit. Open the Heart. Conceive the Heavens. Pursue the Dao."
Each word was solemn and the etchings were abnormally deeply written into the throne. There was a fundamental profundity that was present but difficult to grasp initially. However, the words were moving as if urging one to never forget their goals.
The third line read: "Everlore is Imperishable."
Instantly, the feeling one received was one of unfathomable, spine-chilling, heart-pounding hatred. Those words felt as if someone was speaking something into being. No one understood what this meant, but regardless of who, their hearts would shake so vigorously that they would become lightheaded regardless of their cultivation.
Only two people felt something different: Su Mei and Wei Wuyin!
The former felt the hatred assail her mind, yet it was shattered by an equally unfathomable will latent within her. Su Mei remained unaffected!
Wei Wuyin, however, felt his veins and heart throb. There was a unique aura within the word 'Everlore' that felt strangely familiar. For some strange reason, on an instinctual level, a raging flow of searing ferocity poured into his mind, and his murderous intent was stirred.
This only lasted for a flash yet Wei Wuyin acutely felt every iota of it.
"You okay?" Xue Yifei noticed Wei Wuyin's abnormal emotional change. Her instincts were on another level.
Wei Wuyin rubbed his eyes, shaking his head. "I'm fine."
"..." Xue Yifei quietly watched, seeing the disjointedness between verbal answers and body language. She held his hand tighter, leaning a little closer. Her actions were timely and appropriate, causing Wei Wuyin's thoughts to settle down bit by bit from feeling her comforting presence.
Sometimes, providing support meant not questioning, simply being there, and even though she was unaware of the cause, Xue Yifei acted how she thought would best help.
Wei Wuyin's eyes stared at the throne's etchings. The aura within the words 'Everlore' was familiar, and he had realized where from.
While his memory of it had been removed by Fuxi's hand after conflict with the River of Time, the feelings on a soul level were unable to be entirely erased. He softly muttered in his heart, "Magi."
