The stage was set. Young Master Shang's posture was relaxed and unrestrained, holding his sword before him with Wei Wuyin's image overplayed with its edge, and while he exuded a downright tyrannically torrential presence of Mystic Aura, the man himself seemed as free as a drunken immortal drifting across the clouds with light steps.
The Soul Saint King's pupils constricted with a honed intensity laced with a disbelieving light shining through desperately. Others might not notice, but he keenly felt that Young Master Shang's entire body had been overlaid with several formidable spiritual arts. In the eyes of an Earthly Saint's Spiritual Sense, he seemed like a bellowing geyser of Sword Intent.
He couldn't help but glance at Wei Wuyin. The man was still a mortal, bound by the constraints of being a mortal, including their inability to properly sense the entirety of the Mystic Dao. At best, those at the Star Core Phase, the Ninth Stage of the Astral Core Realm, the absolute peak of the Mortal Realms, could sense cursory glimpses of the profound Mystic Dao. Just barely enough to gather and refine into themselves, setting the stage for their own Mystic Ascension!
Cao Cuifen's hands tightened into fists. She felt her heart tense and race. She was worried as her gaze shifted to and from Young Master Shang and the elderly man who accompanied him. At times, she would place her gaze on Wei Wuyin, but there wasn't an emotional weightlifting feeling there. Instead, she felt increasingly concerned despite her best attempts to conceal it.
Wei Wuyin glanced at Cao Cuifen surreptitiously from the corner of his eyes. He frowned.
Young Master Shang gently moved his exquisitely fashioned blade. It was clearly the product of a Forger not the slightest bit inferior to a Worldly Saint Alchemist in terms of attainment of their Creationist Dao, the Dao of Forging. It was a true Mystic-World grade Armament formed by genuine materials of the Mystic Dao, not the freely malleable material like the Essence of War.
The elderly man's gaze was calm, resting on Wei Wuyin without any overly emotional display. The young mortal had used some profound powers of the Law to seize this region for himself. Those Sages truly have taken a hands-off approach to this Ancient Sealed Region by allowing an inhabitant of the world to lay claim to it using a Supreme Heavenly Treasure imbued with the power of the Law.
In his eyes, Wei Wuyin was merely a mortal junior who relied on his ancestors and items of power. Of course, if he had his original cultivation base, even if he had decided to suppress his cultivation base to only the Worldly Saint Phase, not the Earthly Saint Phase, he might have noticed slight inconsistencies with his current judgment! For example, Wei Wuyin had not used an item like the War Talisman with the Imperial Law!
It was all him!
Young Master Shang had finished his preparations, both mentally and internally, and he was on the verge of erupting with great power. He took a step forward.
"Let's see if you're worthy!" He took another step forward as the momentum of his mystic force roared to life in a visual display of distorted space, time, gravity, and light, inducing a kaleidoscopic phenomenon of colorfully dazzling light. As someone at the Mystic Star Phase, Young Master Shang had yet to manifest true Mystic Power, but his Mystic Force was enough to cause the Soul Saint King's robes to flutter wildly as if caught in a storm.
"..." The elderly man's brow lifted slightly. He looked at the tense Cao Cuifen and noticed a peculiar occurrence. Not a trace of Young Master Shang's Mystic Force was imposing any effect on her at all. In fact, it seemed as if it was being hindered by some unseen force. She didn't even seem to be noticing. It couldn't even touch the edges of her robes.
Suddenly, the elderly man had a curious feeling and turned to Wei Wuyin. His eyes widened slightly.
Wei Wuyin's gaze was flat and emotionless. If before, he had a faint air of a cavalier attitude, then now it was as if he was an entirely different person. The elderly man's heart raced.
"Ha!" Young Master Shang didn't notice this change as he unleashed his attack! A vertical slash! His movements were swift as he arrived directly in front of Wei Wuyin within a blink of an eye, following through with the slash, as if seeking to split Wei Wuyin directly in half. His sword erupted with stormy sword force that could pierce through planets and all three dimensions of space.
The next sequence of events were things that only Cao Cuifen and the elderly man could perceive. The former was due to her eyes brightening with a foreign spiritual power, greatly elevating her perception. The latter was due to his extraordinary Spiritual Sense.
Wei Wuyin lifted his right leg.
Wei Wuyin lifted his foot toward Young Master Shang.
Wei Wuyin kicked out with a forceful, thundering stomp.
Three movements, all done with a flawless sequence of motion.
All of Young Master Shang's stormy sword force and geysering Mystic Aura popped like a bubble. It all dissipated instantly. The stomp pierced through every invisible and visible defense established by the white-robed, poem-speaking young man without any hindrance. The flat end of Wei Wuyin's right foot landed on Young Master Shang's chest as the young man's expression was calm and confident, focused intently on circulating his powers and unleashing his strength.
There was no heaven-shaking explosion or world-sundering quivering of the air, sky, and earth.
None of that.
A faint burst of the softest air, the lingering sound of flesh meeting foot, once sturdy bones being crushed, and blood spewing on the ground from a strained throat was all that could be heard in sequence.
Bam.
In the wall opposite Wei Wuyin, a stunned figure was smashed into it. Young Master Shang's lower lip and jaw were covered in copious amounts of blood carrying bits of crushed organs. His gaze was staring straight ahead, not gazing at Wei Wuyin, but perhaps the flash of death that existed beyond him.
A human-shaped indent had been stamped into the wall, but it did little to stop Young Master Shang from slithering from it as if he were boneless. With a hollow thud, he fell face-first into the ground. Like a dying fish, Young Master Shang only gave some faint signs of movement. It was barely enough to confirm that he was alive.
"..." Soul Saint King.
"..." Cao Cuifen.
"..." The elderly man.
Suddenly, an aura from the elderly man stirred! He was still in the process of gathering his strength and attempting to interfere, shockingly delayed in every conceivable response he had!
It was terrifying as the entire Ninestar Starfield trembled! The planetary formations and Starfield-wide Array activated as if to defend against an incoming enemy! The entire hall was enveloped in a raging storm of Mystic Power.
"Who do you think you are?!" Wei Wuyin's eyes flashed coldly as an inviolable power enveloped the entirety of the Ninestar Starfield. He lifted his hand and waved casually. Like a candle's flame burning in windy weather, all of the elderly man's aura dispersed in a flash!
"...!" The elderly man was taken aback with widened, disbelieving eyes. He felt as if a terrifyingly developed authority had seized control of this entire region! Law! Moreover, it was not simply Law Aura or generated by a treasure, but by the young man directly before him!
He felt as if earth-binding chains were wrapped around his limbs and neck. These chains were unseen as if infused within all of space and time, yet carried a wisp of annihilation that seemed to threaten his soul directly.
If he moved the tiniest bit, he felt as if it could be the last act of his life! He immediately weighed breaking his seal in this world!
Wei Wuyin walked forward a few steps, despite moving slowly in this vast hall, he was before Cao Cuifen within those few steps. The Alchemic Saint of the Ninestar Starfield renowned as the Ennea-Hall Alchemic Saint throughout the eighteen regions was taken aback immediately. When she saw Wei Wuyin walk toward her with a smile filled with dissatisfaction and warmth, two interesting emotions, she was unable to properly organize her thoughts in her mind.
"Cao Cuifen, do you consider yourself my woman?" Wei Wuyin's question was abrupt and it caused Cao Cao to be shaken intensely.
What? When was his aunt Wei Wuyin's woman?!
Cao Cuifen's eyes shone with a startled light, but there was the same decisiveness she had showcased on that day immediately after. "I do."
She had given Wei Wuyin her body and held nothing back in telling him about herself and her history. Even before that day, when they laid together on that day as her body was reverted to a mortal, she had decided to become his woman. While her original intentions were for her own selfish goals, this slowly changed as he revealed himself more and more, changed with each time she thought of him, that she recalled their time together, and everything else he'd done.
As if to emphasize her own thoughts, she repeated: "I do."
Wei Wuyin looked a little saddened, and this caused Cao Cuifen's worried heart to tremble uncontrollably.
"Then do you think I can't protect you? In my world? In our world?" Wei Wuyin gently asked.
"..." Cao Cuifen was an intelligent woman, on the spectrum of emotions and logic, and she easily understood why Wei Wuyin was asking these things, and why he was being so gentle with his questioning. Her gaze swept across the elderly man and the crumbled half-corpse of Young Master Shang. All her deep-seated worries and concerns melted like ice in the summer heat, replaced by a blazing heat that provided tremendous warmth.
Wei Wuyin reached out his hand.
She didn't hesitate to grab it.
"Good. When you threaten others in the future, either to stand down or lower their head, don't use some nonsense Ninestar Sainthall from far, far away. I'm enough."
Cao Cuifen felt her heart shake. She had lived a life of being alone save for her nephew, and had only relied on herself in her thousands of years of life. The sensation of having someone protect her and act as a stable pillar of support so directly was something she hadn't felt in a long, long time.
It felt... ...really good!
Nodding with satisfaction, Wei Wuyin looked at the elderly man. "While I have a good idea as to who you are, and why you're here, none of that matters when you challenge me in my own home or look down on those I care about. While you're here, understand what you are: An illegal immigrant of my empire."
As for that challenge of three strikes, what nonsense was that? He never treated such a child-like challenge seriously!
