"Are...you okay?" The voice of Yue Songli sounded out, tinged with confusion.
Far away from the Shadow Egg, far from the battle between Ascended and flaming beast, there was an archaic Voidship anchored in the Dark Void, unactivated except for its life-sustaining formations. The main deck of this ship contained three auras. One was quiet, unconscious. One was settled, beyond Mortal Limits. One was waning, inconsistent and sputtering.
"Huff...huff...huff..." heavy, exhausted breathing filled the air. Wei Wuyin was drenched in cold sweat, his muscles trembling, and his silver eyes quivered ceaselessly. He had never been so exhausted before, even when he had pushed his Bloodline Source to its limits.
Yue Songli was standing a few meters away, her pink irises observing the situation. She recalled the events prior. Wei Wuyin was a picture of health, exuding brilliance and exuberant energy, but after searching the Shadow Egg for this unconscious individual, a mere mortal amongst mortals, a cultivator at the Qi Condensation Realm, at the Yang Growth Phase, not even at the False Reality Phase.
She couldn't fathom why this individual was important. But after finding them, she witnessed an unexplained event. Somehow, a Void Portal manifested directly before them, and they entered and left out of another. Her understanding of Void Portals were overturned, completely stupefied by this development.
She was hesitant to enter, but with Wei Wuyin's firm hand and confident, comforting smile, she felt dragged along by his pace. He had pulled her out of imprisonment, and then reignited her hope for freedom. There was no reason to doubt him now.
When they exited, they were far, far away from the Shadow Egg, and Wei Wuyin instantly summoned an archaically designed Voidship. She hadn't seen one of these before in real life, they were truly ancient, at least outdated by five thousand to six thousand years.
Settled onto the Voidship, he released his aura, but it was rather weak. She didn't understand the drastic change, but after he erupted with grey radiance that temporarily blinded her, she felt something akin to time and space energies but wasn't, and then when it dimmed down, his current state was the consequence. Drenched in cold sweat, barely standing, and breathing heavily without respite.
Then, raging flames erupted hectically in the distance. Two planet-sized balls of fire brightened the world considerably at different areas, shocking her thoroughly. If it wasn't for her own ability to create Solar Stars, to conjure planets, she would've been even more shook. She felt that this was the result of a fire-attributed Ascended fighting the others belonging to that organization. And since those flames stimulated her instincts, she felt it belonged to a Demi-Mortal Lord cultivator, fiercely surprising her.
While confused by his state, she couldn't help but realize that this silver-eyed man that had popped abruptly in her life, given her hope, gave her freedom, had come prepared from the beginning.
Wei Wuyin took a deep, steady, gulping breath before exhaling out an air of stress. Standing upright, he turned to Yue Songli and gave her a smile, "I'm fine. Just a little exhausted." In truth, his current state was horrendous. His cultivation base was terrifying in comparison to the average cultivator at his level. Even terrifying couldn't describe it.
After reaching the Gravity Emission Phase, using the last bits of his remaining alchemical products during the last six years to enhance his cultivation base, his sixty-nine centimeter-sized Astral Cores had heightened to seventy-three centimeters. While only four centimeters of difference, his astral force overall strength had elevated, becoming far, far denser and richer through the refinement of his Gravitational Central Mass, the Black-White Hole.
If one went by ordinary standards of Gravity Emission Phases, from the golden age of the Everlore Starfield to even the Aeternal Sky Starfield, it was fairly consistent that the average was half a centimeter.
With four Astral Cores at the equalized state of seventy-three centimeters, he had roughly 584 times the reserves of the average cultivator at his level. Not counting the absolute difference in their astral forces strength, his World Seas contained enough astral force to drown some smaller starfields.
Yet the strain of opening a Void Portal was outrageously high, unfathomably difficult. This wasn't just because of the mystic essence emitted by the nine Solar Stars with Mystic Radiance Belts strengthening the stability of space overall, but the resistance given by the starfield's protections to prevent spontaneous invasions. He had met this when he first arrived, blocked at the Ninestar Starfield's boundary.
Just the sheer fact he could use brute force here as a mortal told of his incredible strength and huge reserves of his Void Force. There was a specific frequency required to bypass this strain, but he wasn't aware of it. While it didn't seem to limit spatial energies or forces, it deeply targeted Void Portals.
The core issue stemmed from the crushing attempt to continuously shatter his Void Portal, not the act itself. To sustain it, he had to use far too much power. Furthermore, he had helped Bai Lin catch up to the two Ascended, creating two Void Portals at two different locations that he wasn't present in, a first for him.
Due to this, he had exhausted almost all of his astral force, converting most of his power into Void Force. Fortunately his Bloodline Source was perfectly fine. At least he didn't have to spend time recovering.
Wei Wuyin gathered his breath after some effort, turning to Yue Songli and earnestly asked: "Are you okay?"
Yue Songli was taken aback by the question. She found herself so shook that she was unable to respond. She even stuttered out some words, baffled by it all. When was the last time someone asked her this? The issue was...she didn't know.
Looking at her palms, she felt the invisible shackles that bound her tightly slowly loosen. When she looked at the vast Dark Void, the beautiful stars in the distance, and the artificial air from a new environment, she felt her entire body shiver at the dawn of realization.
"I'm...free? I'm free!" After centuries of imprisonment, forced to strip impressive men of their yang energies for others, used as a surgical knife for their needs, she was given back her autonomy! HER FREEDOM!
Her twin mounds trembled from her excitement and let loose nose-bleeding movements. The tight-fitting, revealing black dress was far too stimulating. Wei Wuyin couldn't help but wonder what she ate to be so impressive. Regardless, her genetics were blessed.
She hadn't realized it, and before Wei Wuyin asked her if she was okay, she was crying. When she asked him if he was okay, her tears were ceaselessly falling.
She was in tears yet unaware of it. The phenomenon shook Wei Wuyin, which was why he feigned his recovered state, and asked her this question. Her subconscious had noticed, but her conscious mind hadn't yet reached that conclusion. He had to push her to that conclusion. A simple question to have her reflect on herself was enough.
He gave her time to process it.
'It's unfortunate that Bai Lin wasn't able to deal with all of them.' His Celestial Eyes allowed him to observe the fight, well, more of a burning slaughter. He had witnessed one of the Ascended escaping before his signal was released. His timing was impeccable.
Wei Wuyin's eyes narrowed.
It was a little too impeccable.
A little too coincidental.
"..." Wei Wuyin's thoughts were clear, and he was ninety percent certain that the timing and reason was far too accurate, and very difficult to deduce. Either that individual's intelligence was absurdly high, his survival instincts were extremely sensitive, or the most likely: the Heavenly Daos influence.
An Evil Blessed?
His narrowed eyes became sharper, glinting with a cold light. But, he soon calmed down. His thoughts were almost driven in the wrong direction, and his understanding of what Evil Cultivators had almost subtly changed. While the events and atrocities happening within that black sphere was horrific, the concept of Evil Cultivators only meant the way they cultivated, at the expense of other cultivators.
But planets had life, so did plants. The way of alchemy enabled breeding, nurturing, and extracting of herbs for one's own usage, then twisting and ending that life for their own goals. Everything had a potential for life, even a drop of water or a rock, this was clear by the existence of demons born from the Soul Impartation of the Heavens. Since this could happen, every destroyed pebble or water sipped was a potential life snuffed.
Evil Cultivators were given this designation due to using cultivators as resources, like cannibals who ate their own species for survival in a cruel world. If he went down the road of believing it was truly evil, then he would walk down the path of a hypocrite, picking and choosing what he wanted to believe without understanding anything.
He refused to live with deliberate ignorance. He refused to not understand what cultivation truly meant. While he could live by his own principles and morals by not practicing Evil Methods due to his own disinclination towards them, he couldn't dismiss it so strictly for others. It was outright disrespectful to what it meant to cultivate.
The Heavenly Daos was unfair.
But they were also fair.
They treated everyone from the onset as equal, and only those who either broke or kept to their 3000 commandments were punished or rewarded. This was the cause and effect bestowed by the authority of the Heavenly Daos.
Evil Cultivation Methods had little to do with it. They were just heretical methods judged on the basis of current society. Perhaps in some civilizations in this vast world, Evil Methods might be orthodox, and using plant life to extract essences and energies might be heretical.
Wei Wuyin's ability to see the truth of cultivation allowed him to see Ying, his Shadow, and the evil he believed was within his soul, as well as pull him out of his shrouded haze.
"A Blessed that cultivates Evil Methods…" Wei Wuyin muttered out, intrigued by this individual.
Kree!
As Yue Songli basked in her newfound freedom, a clarion cry sounded through the Dark Void. A white and gold feathered bird soared towards the voidship. Clamped at the tip of its beak was a small golden-colored bead.
Wei Wuyin warmly smiled, "You enjoyed yourself?"
"I did!" Bai Lin smiled with her eyes, and added: "But I wanted to kill them all. Despicable." Her killing intent leaked in her mental transmissions. An Ascended had escaped, but not a single cultivator within the Shadow Egg had escaped incineration. She had just slaughtered millions of Evil Cultivators, but just one escaping left her dissatisfied.
When Bai Lin entered the Voidship's atmospheric layer and landed, Wei Wuyin shook his head. He didn't disagree. Those who kill should be aware that they could be killed. He was always ready for his time to come. He would have no regrets, and every step in his life was to ensure that would remain the case. Walking over to Bai Lin, he curiously looked at the small golden bead.
"What's that?" He reached out, not to grab the bead, but to give Bai Lin a soft rub, but when their bodies came into contact…
OOOOOM!
Time froze!
