Paragon of Sin

Seeing Wei Wuyin interact with the Endless Void Mirror, actively softening the sealing restrictions established and nullifying the passive interference of spatial manipulative arts, spells, armaments, and tools, the one-armed elderly man nodded slightly while steering the ship. With this, leaving while executing the ship's stellar transit functions to evade those pesky Sages was possible.

Just had to aim for beyond the Faux-Immortal Sky Source Seal; his spiritual strength subtly interacted with the ship's core that powered all the formations and arrays placed throughout its external shell and internal rooms, galvanizing extraordinary spatial power. While this spatial power wasn't powered by Void Energy, there was a unique energy source that made it no less inferior in some ways.

The fluctuations caused Su Mei's eyes to glisten with spiritual brilliance. She sensed a dense light energy flow beneath her feet. Her attunement to light energies produced preternatural levels of sensitivity to all things light. Her eyes observed the congregating flow of light into a central part of this white vessel, subtly outlining every formation within.

Within the blink of an Ascended's eye, she mentally counted each independent and interwoven formation, establishing either small supportive functions or a comprehensive array that allowed for movement through various terrains such as air, water, earth, and void, including regulating atmospheric conditions and refining external chaos mana to replenish its spent energies.

It was almost self-sustaining.

There were segments of formations she didn't understand or their functions she couldn't guess with all her knowledge. It was beyond her level.

She wasn't the only one whose attention was glued to these changes and energy-based reactions. Cao Cuifen, Luo Ning, Yao Houyi, Shui Fengbao, and Yue Songli were all engrossed in various aspects of the ship's functions. Some they understood based on their understanding of their respective cultivation methods, others they grasped by comprehending advanced principles of cultivation, while a few things were completely baffling to them and drew their interest.

"Woah! There's a strange type of fire energy gathering. Is it an additional propulsion force? It feels like a type of mixture of spatial energy and fire energies at the mystic-grade," Shui Fengbao audibly said. Focus immediately drew to his area of attention, and almost everyone was engrossed heavily in the discovery.

Almost everyone.

Young Master Shang sighed wistfully as he took a sip of his flagon. While Wei Wuyin had mentioned cultivation and piqued his interest, the sight of Yue Songli left him in sorrow. As for their excitement, while it was interesting to observe their reactions, it couldn't offset the somberness in his heart.

He knew the situation was just not ideal. If he could change it, he would, but the cultivation world was something like that. He just had to accept it. Right?

The one-armed elderly man's gaze swept across the group. Their vividly awed reactions were reflected clearly within his gaze. Just as he arrived at Yue Songli and Wei Wuyin's immortal-like figures, as if wanting to see their colorful reactions, the latter met his gaze head-on. The silvery shine within his eyes was unnaturally attractive, like an illusory reflection of a full moon across a lake's surface. When matched with his looks, Wei Wuyin gave off an extraordinary quality that existed on an existential level, as if he could imprint himself upon one's mind.

Wei Wuyin's lips lifted into an unforgettable smile.

The one-armed elderly man replied with a faint smile before looking away, returning to focusing on piloting the ship to depart from this Ancient Sealed Region and the Endless Void Mirror. When that happened, he could fully release his Soul Lock of Lawful Authority Spell, regaining his true cultivation.

While the one-armed elderly man had announced earlier that they were coming close to the border, the vast starry skies revealed no specific border, wall, or obstruction of any kind. At least, not to the visible eye or spiritual sense.

The Endless Void Mirror's starry skies were a real illusion. It was contradictory to describe an illusion as real, but reality was as such. The starry skies DID exist. The vast depiction of endless stars in every direction was real, and the astronomical phenomenon that could be observed from the Ancient Sealed Regions was real, except the distance was not. The direction was not.

You could travel in a straight line for billions upon billions of years within the Ancient Sealed Region and never take a single inch beyond a certain point, only cycling around this unseen 'border' of the eighteen stellar regions as if gliding across the inside of a bubble. While you can see outside the transparent bubble, leaving the bubble was difficult without popping it.

Only by placing straws previously in this bubble while it was forming was the outside world capable of interacting with the inside. Connected to these bubbles was the Endless Voyage Realm and the straws were the nodes that siphoned energies and essences from both worlds to function or shuttle individuals to and back.

Meanwhile, the distance of the stars was visibly quadrillions upon quadrillions of miles away relative to their true distance; the Ancient Sealed Region had always been within the Infernal Sovereign's territory, the Ascended Sovereign of the Titan Race! It wasn't segregated or split off, but within the territory itself, surrounded by it.

Young Master Shang sighed as he eyed the real illusion of the starry skies. "The quasi-supreme Heavenly Treasure this world was made in is quite spectacular. It's rather unfortunate that it's being used for something like this when it has so much potential." The sigh he heaved was enough to feel his honest opinions on the matter.

"Quasi-Supreme?" Shui Fengbao's eyes brightened alongside the others. The term was interesting because it was new. They learned of Heavenly Treasures and knew they were tools forged or crafted by cultivators at peak Mystic Ascendant Realm experts, and knew that it meant the ability to formulate a resonance with the Three Thousand Realms of Law, emulating the notorious Edict of a Sage.Additionally, Supreme Heavenly Treasures were tools that could invoke a true Edict of the Sage, forged by cultivators beyond the Mystic Ascendant Realm, touching upon the Resonant Soul Realm!

Wei Wuyin taught them this high-level knowledge a long time ago, and they grasped this detail firmly, hoping to never miss a heavenly treasure should they come across one in their journey. They even knew of the Endless Void Mirror's Heavenly Treasure classification.

But quasi-supreme?

"Yeah," Young Master Shang took another sip of his flagon, observing as Wei Wuyin used the Endless Void Mirror to structure a temporary straw within this isolated world, maintaining the stability of the world. It was impeccable control.

Seeing this, he turned and saw Yue Songli's glimmering eyes, her hands held tightly to Wei Wuyin, eager to hear more. He smiled and continued, "It's just a normal heavenly treasure that was forged with materials sufficient for a 'Supreme' grade, but the ones who created it were lacking in many ways, causing it to be unable to properly establish a resonance with the heavens.

"They didn't possess any authority over time or space. How could they hope to forge a proper bond to resonate with the Laws of Space or Time? Sad really." After making this comment, he took another sip. This time it was a huge gulp as if trying to drown his sorrows entirely.

The one-armed elderly man's eyes flashed as he activated the propulsion formation. A blast of silver flames erupted from the back, launching the ship forward as the atmospheric layer enveloping the white vessel miraculously transformed into a shell of beautiful rainbow light.

Stellar Transit Light!

The starry background they shot into distorted as they resembled a tiny pebble entering a vast ocean. Incessant ripples of space and distorted time were unleashed as they vanished into the empty Dark Void.

Any cultivators watching would have seen them glow with rainbow light and vanish as if entering into a Vanishing Point, an astronomical phenomenon that brought terror into the hearts of countless travelers of the Dark Void.

On the deck of the white vessel, Yue Songli's beautiful eyes were wide and her heart felt battering waves of awe. She had heard of Stellar Transit Light before but she had never personally experienced it. She only knew that this rainbow light was often used by the Void Voyage Sect for the deployment of certain members or items. Mostly for items. After all, mystic-graded materials often acted volatile to certain spatial energies. This could lead to explosions or distortions.

Long ago, an ignorant Demi-Mortal Lord tried to enter a Void Gate with an unsealed mystic-graded unrefined material and caused the entire planet he was on to be shifted across two stellar regions. As for him, the backlash caused his Mystic Soul to disperse across all three dimensions of space while his refined corpse remained perfectly intact. His physique was unable to save him.

It was a lesson no one would ever forget. Since then, all mystic-graded items were sealed and checked, and then double-checked, and then triple-checked before being transported, while Voidships became renowned for transporting high-level materials across the Dark Void, spurring an increase in Void Pirate activities.

Wei Wuyin lightly touched the Myriad Void Crystal as he observed the Stellar Transit Light. He knew the energy required to use this light was excessive. They could all feel the ship's exhaustion of energies keenly as the formations' fluctuations intensified. Moreover, the elderly man was growing increasingly pale by the second. Clearly, the act was placing a tremendous strain on him.

"Is this necessary?" Yao Houyi asked with a suspicious tone. He directed his question to the one-armed elderly man piloting the ship.

"..." The one-armed elderly man remained silent. It was as if he hadn't heard what Yao Houyi said.

Young Master Shang explained in his stead, "Outside this isolated world is a Sky Source Seal established. It's best if we pierce through the seal in one go to avoid any additional troubles, so we're gathering momentum."

"Sky Source Seal?" Everyone grew confused by the name. Was it a seal established by the Ascended Sovereigns to prevent the escape of those living within? If so, how insidious.

Young Master Shang smiled, but he didn't elaborate. He took another large sip from his flagon, seemingly possessing endless liquor. Despite all his drinking, his speech was clear as a sunny day and his movements were only lazy, not awkward at all. Undoubtedly, however, he was drunk. Drunk enough to kill a normal Exalted, those in the Mystic Star Phase, several thousand times over.

A sense of unease swelled within everyone's hearts suddenly. Yao Houyi moved to his empty quiver as if ready to take out an arrow. Shui Fengbao's eyes blazed with a faint fiery light. Su Mei gripped the hilt of her saber. Yue Songli's body tensed. Cao Cuifen flinched. They all had a reaction of some sort.

"What's that?" Yao Houyi asked.

"The spiritual sense of Sages," Young Master Shang said as he took yet another sip. There was no fear in his eyes or tension in his body.

The Stellar Transit Light abruptly shook violently.

The light in the one-armed elderly man's eyes lit. "We're through!" As he announced their success, his body shook as he spewed out a mouthful of blood. The Sky Source Seal was extremely easy to enter for those beneath the Resonant Soul Realm. Very, very difficult to exit at the Heavenly Saint Phase and above. His Mystic Intent suffered a backlash and his Mystic Soul throbbed painfully.

Cao Cuifen felt a pinch in her lower belly-her dantian. She touched her stomach, sensing the changes to her dantian. Witnessing this seemingly insignificant action, the one-armed elderly man felt relieved. She was indeed only at the Earthly Saint Phase. Even if she was sealed by a soul lock and an envoy sent by the Ninestar Sainthall suppressed to the Earthly Saint Phase, her reaction would have been as intense as his own or worse.

Meanwhile, the mortals felt nothing, including Wei Wuyin.

"Are you okay?" Yue Songli asked, her concern genuine.

The one-armed elderly man wiped the blood from his thin lips and gave her a reassuring smile and nod. "I'll be fine," he answered weakly.

"Seeing that you're injured, I'll postpone my cultivation." Wei Wuyin stated as he observed the Stellar Transit Light curiously. Given the ship's power, it should only last three days unless an external power source such as a cultivator's cultivation base or essence stones were used. Wei Wuyin looked at Yue Songli, "to ensure no issues happened."

Cao Cuifen gave the two a sidelong glance and inwardly pouted. This was an expected reaction in the one-armed elderly man's mind as Wei Wuyin had once brazenly claimed Cao Cuifen as his, but was now actively showing love only to a younger, bustier, and more beautiful woman.

He didn't blame Wei Wuyin at all, however. He focused his attention on recovering, taking out a low-tier Mystic-World fast-acting recuperation elixir and drinking it without hesitation.

The Stellar Transit Light made it difficult for those to see where they were going or what was going on around them. Because of this, Wei Wuyin stayed on the deck and closely guarded everyone. The Stellar Transit Light lasted for an entire three days, a full seventy-two hours, as if there was a specific maximum of energy stored within. The rainbow veil around them slowly began to dissipate.

When they looked around at the patches of openings, they saw endless starry skies in every direction. There wasn't a planet or signs of life for a hundred million miles. Where were they?

Young Master Shang lifted his head and took the largest gulp since. The sounds of his swallowing were continuous.

Shui Fengbao felt that the alcoholic young master was about to drown himself in drink. He had never seen someone so attached to their flagon as he took a sip at least once every minute without rest. It was excessive.

Shui Fengbao finally grew worried and asked, "Are you-"

Whoosh!

A rising gust of mana, air, and heat interrupted his words. His fiery red eyes instantly constricted as he felt a rising aura from a single, seated figure. It was tyrannical, forceful, and almost god-like. He found his soul had grown still before such a mighty presence! He couldn't breathe!

He wasn't alone!

They all focused on the one-armed elderly man as his aura began to rise to the heavens, a dark reddish, almost bloody light piercing into the starry skies for millions of miles!

"Finally," the one-armed elderly man said as he flexed his thin arms. The spiritual senses of everyone present scrambled and lost their focus, only the physical senses could see the all-mighty aura flourishing to the high heavens. It was extraordinary!

His Soul Lock of Lawful Authority was removed!

"Is this a Heavenly Saint?!" Cao Cuifen was astonished to the extreme, barely capable of getting any words.

Wei Wuyin observed the elderly man as his expression slowly revealed intense shock. "You're at the Ascended Saint Phase?!" He was caught off-guard, his reaction the perfect color of surprise and disbelief.

"Ascended Saint?" The one-armed elderly man faintly smiled, a tinge of ill intent hung lightly on those thin lips. Then, he looked at Su Mei. "I'm a Sage!"

Su Mei's pupils constricted instantly!

He launched a fist! It was simple, lacking any flourish, but carried an invisible force that made it impossibly fast and unimaginably strong!

"NO!!" Wei Wuyin shouted as he manifested Element. Before he could even make a move, however, the fist had already smashed into Su Mei. As a mere mortal facing an attack from a True Sage Phase cultivator, she didn't even have the time to cry out.

There was no explosion.

There was no bloody splash.

Her body simply vanished. She was destroyed on an atomic level with a single fist!

Dead!

Not even her soul remained.

"NOOOOOOOO!!!" A cry that could be heard by the Heavenly Daos themselves resounded. A hellish killing intent beyond anything one could imagine engulfed the heavens, dimmed the stars, and annihilated space!

Wei Wuyin swung his saber!