Paragon of Sin
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chapter-1226
The first visitors were overly eager; very few could hide their excitement, awe, and interest as their Mystic Auras flared emotionally with each passing second. The closer to Baby Defiant they were, the greater their astonishment and disbelief became, and the stronger their emotional response.
"IT'S HUGE!" They thought.
"How did it appear?" They wondered.
Baby Defiant was roughly ten times the size of the Aeternal Sky Star! The latter was the largest star across their known world, and the blood, sweat, tears, lives, and history that enveloped its creation were marked in the history books; however, the former had emerged without any signs, larger, brighter, even seemingly healthier. The bright, far-reaching rays of solar radiance were pure, in harmony with the world without the slightest conflict.
The borders of the Heptasage Pillar Stellar Region began to get its very first visitors. Among them, the Inferno Solaris Church's group was the earliest. While they weren't the closest, they were among the strongest and fastest. Pope Huoyan's eyes, specifically his pupils, began to exude a light of time as if grasping the essence of motion and age. A Mystic Rune sat firmly at the center, emanating a steady temporal aura.Temporal Eye!
Temporal-type Mystic Rune!
"It's far, far older than the Aeternal Sky Star!" Pope Huoyan exclaimed solemnly. The others had similar eyes, a few lacking the Mystic Rune, but the light of time was present in all of their eyes. Baby Defiant might be a 'newly birthed' star, but its quintessential Star Core was forged by Little Defiant, and the Solar Star had undergone countless years in the Mortal Star Eradication Tribulation.
While Wei Wuyin had been removed from experiencing the effects of proper aging by the Mortal Daos' profound laws of exclusion instilled within the Samsara of Stars, Solar Stars, even World-Bound Star Domain appointed Solar Stars, were subjected by the normal laws of space, time, rebirth, and growth of Star Ascension. Due to this, Little Defiant was extremely old.
The temporal signature showed Baby Defiant as being older than any other Solar Star in the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region, and by a large margin no less!
Ma Zheng's eyes briefly displayed a set of confusion. While Wei Wuyin hadn't included many in his intentions of an ongoing Solar Star project, Ma Zheng had concluded that this new star had been created by Wei Wuyin somehow. However, the evidence suggested otherwise. This star was simply too old, and Wei Wuyin was not even a hundred!
Could he have used a dying Star Core and revitalized it? While others might not be aware, he knew that Wei Wuyin had a way of creating a Natural Solar Star. Thinking up to here, his thoughts had changed slightly. Wei Wuyin must have found a star somehow and harmonized it using his Elemental Heart Intent.Could it really be a failed project conducted by the Seven Sages Tower? Perhaps the former Imperial Clan wasn't the first clan to try and establish a Supermassive Solar Star!
Whoosh!
As the earliest arrivals among the first visitors, the Inferno Solaris Church's group was instantly halted at the newly established borders of the Neo-Dawn Starfield, the former border of the Heptasage Pillar Stellar Region, and they couldn't take a step forward! The cause? Earthly Saint!
A seething Mystic Aura writhed around an armored figure threateningly. There was a killing intent rolling off the Spirit of War, and their gaze beneath their corinthian-style helmet was downright spine-shivering, soul-suffocating, and spirit-crushing. There was a bloody smell in one's senses despite it being the Dark Void.
The imposing figure was none other than a Spirit of War! A being of war, born for slaughter, and forged in accordance with the laws of war!
Ma Zheng and Huoyan Liulan had seen these trained soldiers before during the Yue Songli protection operation against Trueborn. The latter was immediately stunned, "Isn't that?" She turned to Ma Zheng, her eyes filled with questions. While they were aware of eighty-one unfathomable auras manifesting from afar, seeing this figure caused all their hearts to shiver.
To Huoyan Liulan, these soldiers were part of the battalion that had fought that day! They had been Demi-Mortal Lords then! Her shock was apparent as she sent several spiritual transmissions to Ma Zheng. Ma Zheng could only sigh in his heart. Wei Wuyin had always kept things close, and while he displayed a degree of trust toward him, he was still as mystifying as always.
Considering how he overturned his life and death with a single elixir, he was capable of accepting the situation.
"No wonder," Pope Huoyan said softly. The others were gawking and standing behind him despite their cultivation base. A single Spirit of War felt like a dangerous existence, primed to slaughter at a moment's notice. Those two words, however, carried a lot of meaning.
Wei Wuyin had attacked Trueborn all those years ago, dauntless and imposing to the heavens, and this must be his source of confidence!
Saintmaker!
A true Saintmaker!!!
His aged eyes were already undergoing several changes. For the first time in his long, long life, he saw a fresh light in the dusky tunnel of life. A light that had once been snuffed out mercilessly had been reignited!
HOPE!
Woosh!
The others began to arrive from almost every direction. Due to the Sealed Region's unique spatial composition, a result of the Endless Void Mirror, there was no specific border to the Sealed Region. The beautiful Dark Void and the distant stars glittering in the sky were too distant. Some have tried to trek to stars beyond a certain limit, but they would never find anything but an endless stretch of space.
At eighty locations scattered across the Neo-Dawn Starfield, the Spirits of War kept everyone from entering. They were gatekeepers! Their aura was vicious, and their intent was clear. A few even refused to step within a few thousand miles of them, staying far away as they observed the situation, waiting for the main speakers to take the lead.
Despite the astonishing speed of Earthly Saints, it took them quite a while to reach the Neo-Dawn Starfield's borders. This was especially so for those at the far reaches on the other side of the Sealed Regions. They had pushed their limits, yet they took a long time!
"How is it?" The Heavenly War Spirit had asked Wei Wuyin to grow accustomed to his new physique, inspect it, and determine its special characteristics during this downtime. Every Astral Physique possessed extraordinary powers that greatly benefited cultivators, and unique physiques often had miraculous abilities and changes.
Wei Wuyin's primary physique had been reforged by the Neo-Dawn Paragon-Forging Pill, and the Mortal and Mystic Daos had personally assisted in its concoction, including a strange, eternal presence. The physique-establishment pill was devised meticulously with the principles of being unbreakable, inexhaustible, compatible, adaptable, and powerful!
Not only was it capable of holding his over-the-limit energies and forces, something that had plagued him to becoming a cripple and unable to use his full power without exploding, but his body had gained the ability to convert Mana into any type of energy! A type of conversion that exceeded Intent!
Whether it was his Primary Light Sources, Bloodline Source, or Yang Source, they were all capable of restoring themselves without any additional input. Moreover, he could emulate the four Astral Souls' unique adaptability of taking each other's energies or forces to create another type! Additionally, he could absorb any type of energy, Mortal or Mystic, of any level, without feeling overwhelmed.
These were all benefits of his Primary Physique, but his Astral Physique was the evolved version of that, and it was further refined by four of his Astral Souls' unique harmonized solar essence tailored to their principles. While Eden and Kratos had completed their tribulations by themselves, their harmonized solar essence was already ready, waiting for him to leave the Samsara of Stars to infuse with his Primary Physique, establishing the bare bones of an elementary-level Astral Physique.
The Stellar-Paragon Physique!
Wei Wuyin had been besieged by too many things initially, but after inspecting it, he was growing increasingly astonished by everything he kept discovering.
"How is it?!" The Heavenly War Spirit asked again, sending a ripple through Wei Wuyin's Sea of Consciousness. He was jolted out of his stupor, brought back from his entangled thoughts, but was unable to erase the disbelief from his expression!
"..." Before Wei Wuyin could properly formulate and give a complete explanation of his discoveries, his eyebrows furrowed slightly.
Zhan Zheng stood beside Wei Wuyin, and his dragon-head helmet-wearing head turned in a direction. There was a cold glint in his eyes that was pervasive and tyrannical. He pushed out his right palm! Suddenly, a spatial ripple at the edge of the border emerged and then began to rapidly surge!
"Ugh!" A grunt, pained yet delicately soft, resounded throughout the Dark Void. A slender figure tumbled oddly out of fixed space, their body rolling through the Dark Void a few times in an unseemly fashion, and only after a few times did they come to a stop.
Those who were halted at the edge all turned to see the frantic figure, their eyes shaken by the identity of the person! They were world-defyingly beautiful with silver hair that glistened with faint moonlight, violet-colored eyes that contained a type of exotic, otherworldly charm, and a silver robe that similarly exuded a radiant glow.
Moonfall Lunar Queen!
She had the look of a young woman in her early twenties, as pretty as a painting, with the figure of a devilish vixen that could tempt mortals and immortals alike, despite her modest robes that concealed her curves deeply. She was truly a rare, matchless beauty of her generation; the sight of her was enough to shake the heart at its core, affecting the veins, arteries, and brain.
This exceptional woman, her beauty as radiant as the Moon, had a line of violet-silver mixed blood leaking from her left nostril and pink, lustrous lips. She was injured! And from her aura, it was clearly not light!
"There will be no other warnings!" Zhan Zheng announced coldly, sending shivers down everyone's spine. It was clear that the Moonfall Lunar Queen had tried to slink past the gatekeepers through fixed space and immediately failed! She was taught a harsh lesson by an uncompromising hand!
How brazen!
They couldn't fathom where she got the confidence, but seeing how her gorgeous face that was nigh picture-perfect, no less inferior than the Imperial Empress, was marred by an indifferent expression, they felt slightly aggrieved at seeing her suffer. She quietly wiped the blood from her face, her violet eyes observing Zhan Zheng, ignoring the gazes of the Ascended beings around her.
"That's the Moonfall Lunar Queen!" The crowd of Earthly Saints began to discuss like ordinary humans, bored as they waited for the Sky Destroyers to arrive.
"I've never seen her before…" A Demi-Mortal Lord was brought along by an Earthly Saint exclaimed. "She's as beautiful as the rumors say!"
"The Moonfall Lunar Queen is an extremely reclusive figure, she typically stays in her Lunarfield without much interaction with others, and she's fiercely territorial. Despite being the ruler of the lowest-ranked starfield, she's often talked about as being among the top ten of Earthly Saints. She's a fierce character, but be wary—it's said that she holds deep grudges, and hates when others pursue her or compliment her on her looks." An Earthly Saint explained to the Demi-Mortal Lord, listing off the information they knew of this peerless beauty.
"Lunarfield?"
"Right. It's a starfield without a star, only a Lunar Satellite acting as the center for all orbiting planets. It's just another term, don't mind it too much." The Earthly Saint casually explained before staring at the Moonfall Lunar Queen with focused interest. He wasn't the only one.
Wei Wuyin was slightly taken aback by the culprit. He expected it to be Xia Jia—the Rainbow World Starfield's sole Earthly Saint, and he even wanted it to be. Unfortunately, it was the Moonfall Lunar Queen. Or fortunately, it was the Moonfall Lunar Queen!
Wei Wuyin had never met or even seen this woman before in either of his memories, and she was the definition of a reclusive character among Earthly Saints. She ruled her domain quietly, and it was said she rarely left.
However, he was surprised by how developed and powerful her Spatial Arts were. She had slithered through space for quite a while, and Wei Wuyin only noticed her after she entered roughly three hundred billion miles away! Considering that was only slightly beyond the former Heptasage Pillar Stellar Region from his location at its center, this went to show her concealment in space was at the level of Spatial Merging.
"It seems that her being a secluded character adhered to her starfield was a lie," Wei Wuyin's Celestial Eyes had greatly increased its powers of perception after reaching the Star Core Phase, and he noticed faint traces of former lines of falsity all around her body. It was formed from constant usage of restructuring of her face and body, a sign that she concealed her existence many times. Given her astonishing Spatial Merging Arts, she could easily slip into any starfield unnoticed.
If he had to guess, she felt confident about slipping past the Earthly Saints as she'd done so many times before. Unfortunately for her, whether it was him or Zhan Zheng, neither would find any difficulties in locating her.
Despite this, Wei Wuyin wasn't able to contain the astonishment in his heart. This woman truly matched Empress Xiaocheng in looks. While the Empress had a type of noble grace filled with imperialistic dominance, this Moonfall Lunar Queen had a type of serene grace filled with a natural aloofness.
"They're here!"
From afar, the Sky Destroyers were arriving! They were deliberately going slow, and only after everyone relevant had arrived at the border, such as the leaders of the Starfields and Mystic Forces did they speed up, arriving at mind-boggling speeds.
Wei Wuyin unwillingly turned his gaze away to observe the three Sky Destroyers. At the head of these ships was Empress Xiaocheng, her boundlessly alluring eyes honed directly onto him!
"I wonder what play you intend to show me," Wei Wuyin grinned. He already knew what she intended, and he was extremely curious about her intentions. She was an enigma that he couldn't quite understand.
The Sky Destroyers had arrived with a heavy flair and imposing momentum, their formations were fully active, and they stood out amongst the others! Considering they were the sole Voidships in the space of billions upon billions of miles, it was clear that they were the focus of everyone's attention!
"Ascendant Emperor Wei!" A voice resounded that caused everyone's focus to shift.
"Grandfather?" Huoyan Liulan was stunned as she looked at Pope Huoyan. He was an old man garbed in scarlet red robes that possessed exquisitely animated flames on their surface as if they were legitimate flames contained in their own independent world. He wasn't handsome, neither now nor in the past, and the only feature that stood out from him was a blazing red Solar Star tattoo at his glabella. It exuded faint solar radiance!
"..." Ma Zheng looked at the old man that was slightly older than him, and from his eyes, he saw a familiar light that he saw all too well recently. He couldn't help but resonate, and faintly smile as a result. But what happened next exceeded his expectations!
The Pope didn't look at the others, but directly moved toward the very edge of the established border, and then…
He kneeled!
Before the eyes of the elites, Pope Huoyan, leader of the Inferno Solaris Sect, a top elite among the Earthly Saints of the known world, directly kneeled!
"I, Huoyan Xingshi, and the force that I command are willing to submit to you." His tone was solemn, carrying the will of generations, and everyone was speechless!
Wei Wuyin's eyes widened slightly. Hold on! Wasn't there a few steps left? A need for a glorious declaration? He hadn't even had the opportunity to initiate his plans of establishing dominance yet! He wanted to crush the Imperial Clan a little, probe what Empress Xiaocheng wanted, and then…but all of it was erased in a single announcement!
The Inferno Solaris Church?
Was this guy a mind reader? Wei Wuyin was genuinely speechless!