"Why didn't you say anything earlier?" Wei Wuyin asked, no stranger to the importance of deadlines and absurd requirements. What was more absurd than overcoming the Calamities of Hell as a mere mortal with only a few decades to prepare between?
"I didn't think it would be relevant yet. I thought I had more time. I believed-" the Heavenly War Spirit began explaining, but Wei Wuyin interrupted her with an exasperated sigh. He got the gist from such vague excuses. Furthermore, he understood her thoughts to a certain extent.
"..." She realized her reasoned excuses didn't answer anything either. Unable to leave it be, she added: "I've only recently reached this stage of my transformation. It was shortly after you began to claim those existences from the Endless Purgatory, and then I couldn't quite grasp the timing given how busy you were and how impossible the task seemed in such limited time. You must know, grasping a Law Seed, just trying to conceive them, was as difficult as resonating with the heavens."
"There are ways," Wei Wuyin was a genuine Worldly Saint Alchemist acknowledged by the Alchemic Dao, and the upper limits of those products, which were meant for those at the Eighth Stage of the Mystic Ascendant Realm, the True Sage Phase, should involve the Laws and the Edict of the Sage.
Knowing Wei Wuyin's thoughts, the Heavenly War Spirit grumbled, "You've just reached the level of a Worldly Saint Alchemic Saint, I don't think that path of concocting those types of products in three years is too reliable." She hesitated for a second, and then spoke low and solemn, "I know you don't want to enter a Neo-Dawn Vortex-Zone Pellet's temporally distorted field of time, so I didn't think it was possible."
"..." Wei Wuyin silently contemplated as he adjusted Qing Qiumu's position with tender movements. The elven princess was still slumbering. She was ceaselessly being infused with the most nourishing energies that his Stellar Paragon Physique could produce, and Wei Wuyin spared no effort.
The Neo-Dawn Vortex-Zone was intrinsically dangerous to him with very little benefit. While it seemed like a brilliant way to grow stronger while the outside world moved considerably slower, his Inheritor of Sin's flow of time was not based on the world but on himself-his True Soul. If he spent a year in the temporal zone, that would be a year off the Bloodline of Sin's estimated time of arrival for the next calamity.
Moreover, the vortex zone wasn't very conducive to all forms of cultivation. It suited cultivation of space, time, tempering one's body, consolidating one's cultivation base, training arts and spells, and refining one's innate energies. The foundational aspects of the cultivation, essentially.
"The soul of an Ascendant Saint is even more bothersome," the Heavenly War Spirit grumbled. Those at that level were at the Ascendant Saint Phase, or the Seventh Stage of the Mystic Ascendant Realm, and their powers were vastly superior to Heavenly Saints. It was said that they possessed the 'true' abilities of a cultivator of the Mystic Dao.
"Enough," Wei Wuyin frowned with rarely shown annoyance between his brows. "Stop deciding what I can and can't do. As for everything else, I'll figure it out. Three years? That'll do."
Wei Wuyin had long since decided to walk the path of a Paragon of cultivation, taking each step with supreme momentum and a hell-defying foundation. He was left with no choice but to become a mortal who could survive the Calamities of Hell, not just once, not just twice, but likely a third time. Even then, the Calamities of Hell weren't meant for those early-stage Ascended beings but for those cultivators who've entered the Realm of Sages!
"Never keep anything like this from me again," Wei Wuyin warned. "You're a partner on my path of cultivation, and I refuse to have you fall by the wayside. No matter the obstacle, even if it's the Wall of Heaven or the Gates of Hell itself, I'll drag you across it with me. You understand?"
"..." The Heavenly War Spirit could feel Wei Wuyin's doubtless confidence echoing throughout his Sea of Consciousness and Soul. She felt an incredible feeling of warmth. A type of feeling she had never felt before since she was born in this chaotic world of cultivation. She could only simply reply with a sheepish voice, trying to stifle her leaking, teary emotion: "Okay."
In a flash of memory, she vividly recalled the exact moment when Wei Wuyin was about to name her without the slightest care for the consequences. That declaration of his...
She had never regretted anything before in her existence, but she now had two. She should have immediately told Wei Wuyin and she...
Nodding, Wei Wuyin contacted Wu Yu.
"Young Lord! All three targets have been found. I've already sent Mae Min-Ji to Ascendant Shui as requested." The Neo-Dawn Grand Knight had faithfully completed his task with no issues. This was how an Alchemic Knight should be.
Mae Min-Ji was Shui Fengbao's concubine of the Celestial Race. They had met early on in the Chosen King Competition and due to a sequence of fated encounters and exchanges, the two had long since established their relationship. Among those from the Azure-Prime Galactic Zone, Mae Min-Ji was certainly amongst the luckiest. While the status of concubine might be seen as an inferior position, the concubine of the Ascendant's Child of Fire was higher than the wife of a Heavenly Saint.
Why? Because of Wei Wuyin!
As for the shameless woman of the Northfrost Royal Duke of the Exalted Republic whom Tian Yinwu had even warned him about, she was among the three targets.
The last person on the list was the woman who acted as Yi Yun's guardian for the latter half of the Chosen King Competition, Yi Xuehan.
"Shall I bring the one named Yi Xuehan to the Ascendant named Yi Yun," Wu Yu asked.
"Have someone else send her over there for now. Bring the other one," Wei Wuyin ordered as he conjured a Void Portal before him with a single thought. Every spatial ring that was given to an Ascendant had unique Void Anchors imprinted upon them, allowing for swift conjuration of Void Portals to their position.
Within a few easily countable seconds, Wu Yu arrived through the Void Portal with an opulent carriage in tow. His starry gaze observed the unconscious Qing Qiumu for a brief moment before focusing on Wei Wuyin. Just a few hours ago, this young mortal had just become the conqueror of eighteen stellar regions and ended an invasion with a few sentences. Even now, not only was everything taken returned, the Worldly Saint named Jia Yang had taken to executing those who were disobedient, hiding their ill-gotten gains.
He did so openly by erupting with thunderous pulses of rampant power. Every cultivator at or beyond the Venerable level caught sight of each brutally merciless execution, drawn over by that aura of his mystic power.
"Young Lord," Wu Yu greeted respectfully. The opulent carriage contained the young concubine-to-be of the Northfrost Royal Duke. She was idling about in luxurious comfort, eating snacks provided to her by Wu Yu, completely at ease as if she wasn't a hostage or a captive. In her mind, she was being brought to Wei Wuyin, the Worldly Saint Alchemist.
"Do you want to go beyond this world?" Wei Wuyin straightforwardly asked.
"What?" Wu Yu was caught off-guard by the sudden question. Beyond this world? The desire had sprung within him after learning of the truths of this sealed world, but he didn't expect Wei Wuyin to ask him that directly.
"I do," he said decisively.
Wei Wuyin nodded. "Good. Retrieve Tuo Bihan, Qin Rui, Lin Ziyan, Luo Ning..." Wei Wuyin began to list off a series of individuals. "Take anyone else you want. I'll be sending you to the Azure-Prime Galactic Zone with them in seven days."
After saying this, Wei Wuyin didn't allow Wu Yu to ask questions as he conjured a Void Portal for Wu Yu to enter. Wu Yu gazed deeply at Wei Wuyin for a short moment and firmly nodded. "Understood." After saying a single word, he entered the Void Portal leading to the Neo-Dawn Starfield, leaving behind the carriage.
Wei Wuyin exhaled out a breath of heavy air. He still had a little more to do. Once again inspecting Qing Qiumu's state, he rode Bai Lin into the Dark Void with the carriage tethered by a tongue of scarlet-red flames. After a few dozen miles, Wei Wuyin decided his next course of action with a resolved breath, conjuring another Void Portal that Bai Lin shot through.
In the Ninestars Starfield, Cao Cuifen, and Cao Cao-the Soul Saint King, were sitting within a gargantuan and glorious hall within the Soul-Saint Domain. There was a chandelier above that hung baseball-sized Solar Stars of varying colors, representing the Ninestar Starfield's nine stars. They brightly lit the hall and diffused enriched solar essence that, for an uncultivated mortal, would allow them to leap to the peak of the Qi Condensation Realm with a single breath.
They were currently hosting a feast for two visitors. An elderly man and a young man sat at the table. The elderly man didn't touch a single food or drink, but the young man relished, enjoying the wine and succulent food placed before him like an uncultured glutton greatly disparaging his original image as a refined young master.
Cao Cao frowned slightly, but he didn't outright deride the young man for his act or ravaging any food before him. This was the sight of youthful brilliance. "You've checked the Blueglow already. I wonder, have you finished your goal in our Ninestar Starfield?" Those words were directed at the elderly man.
The elderly man politely smiled, "I've only completed a single objective. I'll have to apologize as there are a few more things to do before we take our leave. I hope the branch leader of this Ninestar Sainthall can be patient with me. My bones aren't as young as they used to be."
"..." Cao Cao's heart shook. Despite the old man's words, his every movement exuded a type of natural power that left him feeling utterly helpless. He knew this old man could likely kill him with a single move.
Cao Cuifen's expression was cool and unfazed by the elderly man's words. She had once told Wei Wuyin of her past, including how they hadn't created the Ninestar Sainthall, but had entered it during their earlier years as cultivators and eventually became its leading figures. The Ninestar Sainthall had tangible connections with the World Beyond, but she was unable to explain the exact circumstances of this connection due to her ignorance.
"We shouldn't be much longer," the elderly man consoled. As he spoke, his eyes suddenly glinted with a peculiar light. Adding with a soft tone, "Not much longer at all." His gaze slowly moved to the northern wall.
Kree!
Cao Cuifen's expression had remained unchanged during the entire exchange, but this sound instantly caused her eyes to brighten and a smile to tug at her lips. It was as if she found her source of reliable strength.
Young Master Shang stopped gorging himself with food as his eyes lit with elation. The aura exuding from the direction perfectly coincided with the aura of their goal!
"It's him!"
Within a room, a young woman was sitting before a canvas. The canvas depicted the cloudy sky with grey and dark colors. The dusky clouds were hiding the brilliant star, completely refusing to allow its radiance to breach through. It was stifling to an extreme. She was blank-faced, entirely indifferent in facial expression and body language, and there was a gloomy air surrounding her that could choke the joy out of any soul that saw.
Kree!
When the clarion cry resounded, the young woman's eyes roared to life. The gloomy air was eradicated in a brief instant, replaced by a radiant glow. A ravishing smile that could move the steeled hearts of fierce warriors and the cold hearts of brutal devils took the color from the world.
"You've come!"
She rose from her painter's chair. Tremendous ripples that would elicit eye-popping expressions of shock and disbelief in any hot-blooded man were unleashed on the front end of her simple dress with a simple movement. With hurried steps, she was already rushing out.
Standing on the highest peak of the largest mountain on a particular planet was a large figure. He stared at the sky with unblinking eyes and firm, terrifyingly strong legs embedded into the mountain from his calves.
Kree!
"Cousin..."
His legs shook. His eyes blinked.
The mountain began to crumble.
