Submit.
"Become the galactic vassal state of my Neo-Dawn Empire."
Dream.
"Push your cultivation to the limits, and if you're fortunate enough-ascend!"
Freedom.
"There will only be the minimum required oaths sworn, nothing to constrain your freedom or establish you as a slave for life."
Obey.
"Come, let's continue."
The Minor Elysium kept its itinerary to explore the White Abyss, including searching for and visiting each colored zone, from red to indigo, to satisfy the urge for adventure and to sate curiosity.
After spending six hours in the green zone, most of which was spent 'fishing' for greels. The rest of the green zone was seen. The zone itself wasn't very large nor was it limitless in greels. Eventually, the greels were ruthlessly devoured by each cultivator until nothing remained while the rest of the world was an open space devoid of any signs. The dangers of each zone, even among similar colored zones, were often different. It was this befuddling variable and the fact their boundaries could be reached without much effort that fueled the debate as to whether there were one or thousands of green zones.
After spending an hour digesting gains, Wei Wuyin brought his 'wives', assistant, cousin, Seer, Ascendants, and Young Master Shang to walk the surface of the green zone and inspect. The surface was like firm gelatin, bouncy and fun. This unique environment acted as a makeshift underwater bouncy house that they did as they pleased with, emulating free-spirited children in some ways.
The laughter of Qing Qiumu, the amused smile of Liu Suyin, childish giggles that were often stifled unnaturally by Cao Cuifen, Su Mei's faint smile, and Yue Songli blushing anxiety as she tightly hugged her chest was a sight that left Wei Wuyin feeling endlessly refreshed.
With Wei Si, the two family members relieved the old days of catch. The sight left those Ascended beings of tens of thousands of years of age stupefied. If not for Wei Wuyin's show of strength, if not for his command over time and knowledge of the various 'dangers' of the White Abyss, they might chastise the lot of them as careless children playing around in a death field.
Instead, some felt jealous and even some felt amused. A few even copied them for a bit. The testing of these waters exploded upon Wei Wuyin's invitation for Violet Sea and Grey Rose to join. While he invited Fairy Silence and Crimson Blade, both politely declined. The two Abyssal Overlords didn't refuse and joined in. It was strange seeing the two, rulers of a portion of an entire galaxy, reveal silly smiles of glee, and curiosity, as if they were having genuine fun.
After a short while, the group left the green zone. Wei Wuyin's insight was miraculous, but Yao Houyi directed the escorts. He pinpointed the location of each colored zone with eerie precision. They came across a few dreaded phenomena as they traveled, but after the initial fear, Wei Wuyin would single-handedly diffuse any danger. Although some suffered, such as when a cultivator was split into sixteen pieces after walking into a spatial distortion or an elderly man regressed into a young child, his life force was spent in the opposite direction, so for every year he regressed, he lost life force.
Moreover, the effects seemed ready to rebound, rapidly aging him. Before their very eyes, he turned from an elderly Original Magistrate of roughly 20,000 years to a prepubescent Original Magistrate of 40,000 years, and then rapidly began to age and return. If completed, he would have reached 60,000 years and reached beyond the limits of the average lifespan of a Heavenly Saint, 55,000 years. Before everyone's eyes, he was suffering bodily degeneration from old age, and his vessel for his soul was about to die.
Wei Wuyin intervened at the most critical point with the Minor Time Law or Minor Spatial Law. The sight was gruesome for some, but this allowed everyone to witness the profound means of space and time, especially ways to kill silently and mysteriously. Their depths of understanding when it came to these two profound forces were deepened immensely.
Those who were only saved at the edge of their life or death could only accept their fate, knowing that Wei Wuyin was willing to use them as guinea pigs to serve as examples for applications of space and time for his wives, cousin, and his subordinates. This also elevated the Abyssal Overlords' understanding too, inspiring all sorts of ideas. After all, some of these things could kill them and were legitimate threats.
By now, those aboard the Minor Elysium and the escorting five thousand had realized that many of the abnormalities of the White Abyss related to the distortion or chaos of space and time, and while their domain of influence, such as life force or mental awareness differed with each, under Wei Wuyin's protection, and Yue Songli's desire to see no one's death, they were safe.
This slowly became a dangerous exploration to a genuine sightseeing expedition. The escorts would even offer bits of knowledge from their sides, trying to be useful in any way they could and make an impression. None of them were the ignorant sort. Wei Wuyin had just claimed the White Abyssal Galaxy, and with his strength as well as the support of the four Mystic Lords, there was no question about the outcome. The humans especially were utterly jubilant. Regardless of who Wei Wuyin decides to act as his leader, as a similarly raced human, their treatment would be bound to change and their paths of cultivation might expand!
"Only an Alchemist could do this so peacefully. But of course, they need to be at the appropriate level. Something like this simply wouldn't work on my Blessed Yri Empire or the Treasured Vale Galaxy," Young Master Shang said as he took a swig from his flagon, speaking to Tuo Bihan with a sigh. Tuo Bihan didn't doubt that, and this wasn't the first time that Weii Wuyin had seized control of a territory based solely on his alchemical prowess.
The Myriad Monarch Sect had essentially become his within a few short years. This was an undeniable fact. Even those who policed and maintained the laws of the sect were at his beck and call, fearful of offending him or doing anything careless. Qing Qiumu felt this first-hand.
A single sentence.
And life was reclaimed after her reckless murder, and an entire clan was condemned. Not a single voice of dissatisfaction resounded from any party not directly involved.
And life was reclaimed after her reckless murder, and an entire clan was condemned. Not a single voice of dissatisfaction resounded from any party not directly involved.
This was simply reality; cultivation was difficult, and Alchemists were revered and worshiped as long as they had power and prestige. If not, they would inevitably become like the Four Extreme Continent, becoming enslaved and overworked for the benefit of others, and this was even more so if the Alchemist was of a lower level relative to the territory. For example, the Four Extreme Continent had no Emperor Alchemist or Mortal Sovereign Alchemists, so the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth stages of the Astral Core Realm were unaffected, while she strongest was at the Ninth Stage of the Astral Core Realm, Star Core Phase. The disparity left the Alchemic Dao severely underpowered and under-appreciated when the environment provided more benefits and greater reliability.
"But this is expected of someone who comprehended the Imperial Law, huh? He must be trying to expand his authority beyond the reaches of his territory to have more means, as ambitious as I expected. Let's just hope he doesn't fall into the pitfall of every cultivator of Imperial Law."
Young Master Shang was awed by Wei Wuyin's power, especially his grasp on multiple laws, and has been for a long, long time, but his reaction had always been mild. This was a degree of cultivated calm that was difficult to possess.
They were in the red zone that had cubical structures levitating about like will-o-wisps, exuding a faint ominous light of chaotic space. Any contact with them would leave one finding themselves in a spatial prison in a stasis, and they were odd too. They became invisible at times and unable to be properly sensed given the limitations of Spiritual Sense, and then just a single moment of incaution and one might find them entering the prison with no escape.
Wei Wuyin, however, trivialized the entire event; the cubes became visible and people were collecting them trying to find what was inside. Sometimes they would find raw materials, other times they'd find preserved corpses of cultivators whose lifespan was fully intact but whose soulspan had been depleted. A despairing realization to those in the Mystic Ascendant Realm.
This was the worst type of death.
Slow.
And very, very agonizing.
While in stasis they wouldn't be able to exert any mystic power or spiritual strength, but their souls would still have some sense of awareness and the exhaustion of their limited time remaining. It was brutal to imagine and experience.
The red zone became a game of finding treasure. Wei Wuyin assisted in allowing Yue Songli, Cao Cuifen, and Liu Suyin to pick some good things while Qing Qiumu was unnaturally lucky and found a blackened branch pulsating with pure wood energy at the Mystic-World level.
Even Wei Wuyin was a little surprised that she could sense it through the prison. But after thinking about it, this was likely due to her triple wood-attributed innate talent manifesting as a unique fortune.
The orange zone contained spatial winds that shredded all those who came into contact with it into the tiniest particles, scattering them into the White Abyss. Wei Wuyin sucked every last ounce of wind with a single breath and stored it as Void Crystal. Cao Cuifen's eyes were full of expectation to the point where Wei Wuyin had to give her it. He could only instruct her how to refine the wind, infusing it into her Mystic Soul, and control it as a life-saving weapon. Even World Emperors would die without a doubt if caught in the torrent of spatial wind.
The yellow zone had hot rays of time that distorted one's perception. Without Wei Wuyin unleashing a shield from its rays, everyone would have had their sense of time twisted, likely feeling as if a year had passed when only a second had, and what they could do in a year would be limited to what they could do in a second. It would be beyond disturbing and horrific to have such a slowed-down sense of time.
It wasn't exactly fatal, but it could shatter a weak cultivator's psyche.
The blue zone was empty. There was nothing within. Yao Houyi concluded that someone had just arrived and dealt with the troubles here, very recently in fact, startling everyone. It was as if someone had eradicated all the greels in the green zone and they had just entered it. The feeling left them shaken.
Curious, Qing Qiumu openly asked who it was. And Wei Wuyin said with a mysterious smile, "Just some very old fellows."
They didn't quite understand what it meant, but there were a few who glimpsed the truth behind those words.
While traveling in the White Abyss to the Violet Zone, Wei Wuyin retrieved the Living Vortex of Space and Time. The Living Vortex of Space and Time was hard to describe in shape, as many would assume that it was a vortex or whirlpool, but it instead resembled a rapidly spinning miniature Solar Star that didn't spin on its axis but in every direction all at once. It could distort one's vision just by staring at it.
It struggled somewhat, but after exerting a little effort, Wei Wuyin brought it away and sealed it within Liu Suyin's Dantian before everyone. The beauty was almost dancing with excitement. She expressed her desire to immediately enter secluded cultivation to merge with the Living Vortex, and Wei Wuyin could only bitterly smile as he told her of the two other zones, but she was indifferent and impatient, so he could only send down.
Wei Wuyin gave her a few products that contained ample spatial and time energies that she could feed to assist in the taming process. A Living Vortex of Space and Time was a suitable World-Bound Star Domain replacement, and it was one of the few, very, very few items that could become a World-Bound Star Domain of an Ascended being post-ascension
It was almost as rare as the Star Void Liquid and Edict Seed, and mostly because it was a solar star with a Star Soul imbued with the Law of Space or Time, but rarely was it Space and Time.
Wei Wuyin took a small sample of it for himself, allowing the Second Mind to study and potentially replicate it.
The violet zone was a region devoid of past time energies, affecting one's sense of time. When entered, it was almost impossible to recall doing anything prior. Besides entering, recollection of all else was stifled and led to extreme migraines. After a short period, individuals found their own past memories draining away from them. Once again, this zone could distort awareness and shatter the psyche.
The absence of a type of time energy was extremely dangerous, from the stasis loop to this zone of no past. They found several corpses who were lost and seemingly died after losing all their memories and the ability to formulate new ones.
The past was quintessential to one's existence. Without it, it was easy to lose one's sense of self or learn to progress further in life. In the same vein, the absence of future time energies was far more sinister. Wei Wuyin didn't describe what could happen as there wasn't exactly a single thing.
This zone siphoned past time energies alongside mental energy tethered to it, so the effects veered toward this result. If it siphoned past time energies connected to one's cells or Spirit of Cultivation, the effect would be different.
"Time is messy and shouldn't be carelessly altered," Wei Wuyin warned as he dealt with issue upon issue.
Young Master Shang agreed wholeheartedly. After our, their Blessed Yri Empire was said to have a piece of the River of Time. How could he not be knowledgeable of the dangers, including why the River of Time or the Keeper of Time tried hard to maintain an equilibrium between all forces of time, even going as far as to establish a way to alert it should something go wrong?
The last zone, the indigo zone, was peaceful; There were hundreds of thousands of preserved corpses floating throughout the zone from various races, including Abyssal and Human. Wei Wuyin only sighed as he told everyone to not ask about this or touch any of the corpses. This was repeated by the Abyssal Overlords, seemingly having grasped a horrifying secret.
Grey Rose's expression was as pale as a ghost as she moved incredibly close to Wei Wuyin with her heart pounding.
They rested here for a while. No one was allowed to leave the zone until Wei Wuyin said otherwise.
Someone noticed that the corpses would vanish. Then, new ones would appear without warning.
The most freakish situation was when a World Emperor felt a familiar resonance with a corpse. He was far too curious as the pendant that he possessed was releasing a reaction that shouldn't be possible in the White Abyss. It was designed to only react when another wearer of the pendant died, but he had built this type of pendant and given it to his descendants in different colors to determine their generation. His was unique and had a special color and connected to each pendant on a higher level than the others.
Who could it belong to? Did someone kill his descendants and flee to the White Abyss? What color was it? Was it his wife? His mistress? Perhaps his beloved son?! Fueled by seething anger and unbearable curiosity, he moved to find the source despite the warnings but smartly avoided touching any of the corpses. No one stopped him. He soon...found where the pendant was reacting to.
But what he saw...
...left him as eerily white as a ghost.
When he returned to the group, his eyes were drained of light and his expression was the very definition of gloom and confusion with extreme unwillingness to believe what he had just seen.
Su Mei noticed this and frowned slightly. When she looked at Wei Wuyin, he only shook his head.
"I don't like this place," Yue Songli commented. While she hadn't seen what that World Emperor saw or the face he was making, she instinctively felt uncomfortable. Unlike the other zone where cubes had corpses and treasures, this place was like a graveyard without the slightest bit of fortune.
"I know," Wei Wuyin hugged her tightly. "Just give it forty-six more minutes. I promise I'll take you away from here."
Yue Songli's body shook slightly and nodded, saying softly: "Okay." She could feel that Wei Wuyin's soul aura and Spiritual Aura were both incredibly active, the power of many laws circulating in full effect while his Astral Souls pulsed with terrifying strength, and thus caused her both relief and tension. Relief in being in his arms and tension because she was uncertain whether her selfish desire before would cause any issues.
"So that's it. So that's it..." The World Emperor suddenly began repeating with an increasingly energetic zone of realization. Eventually, he began to laugh madly. "SO THAT'S IT! HAHA! ONE! THOUSANDS! HAHAHAHA!! SO THAT'S IT!!!"
"..." Everyone watched while the Mystic Overlords' expressions darkened simultaneously, even Crimson Blade was unable to hide his fear with all his world-shaking power, only comforted by holding the hilt of his blade tightly.
The laughter was soul-deep in origin, effusing timeless and potent madness into the grim air.
It was the only sound throughout the violet zone...a mad laughter amongst a sea of silent corpses. One of which...had a pendant that glowed at the exact intensity and color as the one the World Emperor wore.
