Insanity
In his younger days, Wei Wuyin was as cautious as a weasel, maintaining a state of rational calm and level-headedness that was unrivaled. It was how he survived and thrived in an environment like the Scarlet Solaris Sect. With steady steps, he was elevated to higher positions within the sect as a disciple.
This was all empowered by an ideology of certainty over risk. Using this, he took his revenge without losing his life after attaining absolute strength to do so. He wasn't the slightest bit reckless.
Everything changed when he obtained the Bloodline of Sin, marked as an Inheritor of this sinful lineage, and realized the depths and potential of what it meant to be 'Blessed'. While his heart of cultivation had been pushed to the verge of collapse by the Calamities of Hell's looming threat and his impending, inevitable doom, he decided to push forward with notably less caution, taking risk over caution.
Determining how this divergence of mentality affected him, one could easily pinpoint the difference. When the Black Skeleton showed itself for the first time, it showed Wei Wuyin's alternative future should it not have interfered-his eventual downfall.
The Wei Wuyin shown then had taken the path of a Heart of Scarlet Qi despite always harboring lofty goals of taking the Elemental Qi Path and lost to Long Chen, literally losing his head. After, he unhesitatingly ventured forward the strongest path despite having very little knowledge of cultivation regarding it, almost always fumbling about, searching and learning as he went. This type of learning and developing method was typically ill-advised due to the likelihood of leading down the wrong path.
To the Wei Wuyin of that time, none of it mattered. With his intelligence and talents, he made due.
After experiencing unimaginable personal success by surviving the Calamities of Hell's Second Calamity with his own efforts, cunning, and means, that caution gradually returned in each of his steps. Quietly, he lurked and siphoned advantages as he had done once before during his Scarlet Solaris Sect days. While he had changed, none of his Astral Souls had from the very beginning. They valued benefits over any risk, even if it killed them, they fought for every advantage imaginable and pushed themselves to the utmost limits their existence allowed.
This slowly affected Wei Wuyin as well, allowing him to regain his truest self that was as forceful and courageous as a true Ascendant Emperor or a Saber wielding Ascendant that dared to draw his saber against gods and immortals, no longer feeling the need to hide his brilliance and brazenly decided to seize every advantage to their fullest.
Eventually, he found a balance as he developed, as he experienced more, as he learned more about the world that he lived in, the depths of the cultivation path, of his own lineage, meeting unseen divinities and embodiments of laws themselves, and faced the Calamities of Hell. This balance was delicate, but it was a balance. It was perfect in almost every way, except it only pushed himself to calculate the maximum gains that he could obtain with the most risk.
But that wasn't good.
Balance could be perfect, it could allow one to thrive and survive, but Wei Wuyin had an epiphany as he watched Tian Yinwu's determination to push beyond the extreme, risking not just his life, but his entire existence as if it was all-or-nothing from the very beginning.
Sometimes, being overly cautious was correct.
Sometimes, being incredibly insane was correct!
Wei Wuyin's eyes blazed with ravenous madness. He had considered all sorts of things since he learned of Tian Yinwu's activities, such as the stability of the interconnected realms and the potential consequences of taking too much. He extrapolated that he could maximize his gains and the benefits for his Ascendants by assisting to a certain point. But this wasn't 'maximizing his gains' by any means but actually limiting himself.
What did it mean to exploit?
It didn't mean to be reasonable!
Take it all. Take it all! TAKE IT ALL!
As for the consequences? Deal with them as they come! Opportunities were rare, and not everything seemed like one, and not every opportunity can be seized again after passing it. For example, after a cultivator ascends to the Mystic Ascendant Realm, their path back to the Mortal Realms of cultivation were permanently severed, and they could never truly return, and only exert what they've already obtained from the Mortal Dao.
When Wei Wuyin ascended, he would never be able to become a Starlord again. Even the Lunar Moonfall Queen who had her cultivation extracted, her soul ruined, even if she resurrected, she would never be able to enter the Mortal Realms! The base cultivation of that soul would forever be at the Mystic Star Phase, the first stage of the Mystic Ascendant Realm, the beginning of the Mystic Dao cultivation path! There would be no lower.
This didn't just relate to him, but to every Ascendant present. They all had a single chance in the Mortal Realms and they could never return. Whether it was the development of their elementary physique or their Astral Physique, when they fully ascended, they would only have Mystic Ascendant's Physique!
The Alchemic Dao is limitless! However, Wei Wuyin understood that while that was true, not everything was allowed! For example, the Mystic-Refined Divinity-Forging Pill could allow a mere mortal to possess an existential state equivalent to an Ascended! Since it could do that, there was definitely an inverse product that could do the opposite! But what was the fate of those who developed this product?
Punished by both Daos; unable to properly ascend without facing a nigh-impossible, if not outright impossible Ascension Trial! As for those who concocted this product, they eventually perished as it was taboo!
The severance of one's cultivation path was not worth exploring that possibility. It was pointless! And that's if one survived concocting it, as Wei Wuyin's Eyes of Fated Avoidance Spell had foreseen his absolute, unavoidable death after concocting it!
Tian Yinwu understood this principle extremely well and his madness was as genuine as his ambition to cultivate! There was no turning back, so one must risk it all to have absolutely no regrets!
Wei Wuyin wasn't alone; the Ascendants were a part of him, and they served him faithfully and dutifully. He had considered the dangers and calculated the risk, unwilling to place them into great danger, but that was his wrong. They, too, only had one shot within the Mortal Realms to forge the best possible foundation. As their Emperor, he should hold the heavens and lead them forward down the greatest path.
There was no other avenue.
Wei Wuyin's silver eyes were unleashing vast, imposing light filled with the power of six Minor Authorities. He was utterly terrifying as he stood above the earth, above the sky, and beneath the heavens, pouring copious amounts of Solar Energy into Tian Yinwu's extraordinary array.
"Little Defiant!" Wei Wuyin exclaimed internally with the force to shake the void. The Defiant Star within his Mind's Eye pulsed intensely in reply. It understood Wei Wuyin's heart. It drastically increased its output of solar energies!
Wei Wuyin directly infused his Minor Authorities' Auras into the array, reshaping it, empowering it, and bringing it to new, unfathomably great heights! The power of laws pulsed from each enlarged crystalline flag!
Tian Yinwu's hazel-gold eyes were blindingly radiant, effusing great power and will, when he felt the sudden change in the array. His heart pounded fiercely as he felt the changes, including how his body was experiencing a considerably less strain!
"Laws?!" Tian Yinwu muttered in abject shock.
"..."
"What do you mean someone's affecting the array using laws?! Altering its structure? What will this do?" Tian Yinwu asked hastily, a tinge of panic on his beautifully handsome face, distorted slightly by his bulging body.
"..."
"THAT'S CRAZY!!" Tian Yinwu struggled, tilting his fat, bulging neck to look to the sky. He could feel a surging presence beyond the atmosphere. It was boundless and epic to perceive, deeply impacting his Sea of Consciousness and Spirit of Cultivation.
"..."
Wei Wuyin looked downward as Little Defiant's power pulsed outward. While he was concealed, his silver gaze met Tian Yinwu's hazel-gold gaze. The insanity within each other's eyes needed not a single exchange of words or intentions.
"Fine then! If that's what you want, then let's do it!" Tian Yinwu couldn't actually see Wei Wuyin, but he could feel the will that rivaled his own. Was this why the Chosen King Competition was delayed? Was he waiting all this time for him? To seize this advantage!
For a picosecond, he had almost forgotten that Wei Wuyin was a mortal too, and also a heaven-defying Worldly Saint Alchemist at that! He was bound to have exceptional means such as tools and artifacts that contain the power of laws. Since that was the case, Tian Yinwu tapped into his own tools, conjuring forth three auras of laws. One of them was the Minor Authority of Space!
The two no longer held back.
With mutual, unspoken understanding, they worked in tandem perfectly. Wei Wuyin provided power and stability to the formation, as forceful as a hammer reinforced with tempered steel, while Tian Yinwu drove its effects to the elevated limits and controlled the array with precision of a scalpel in the hands of a godly surgeon.
