Paragon of Sin

In an unfathomably far away world from the Sky Heart Galaxy, a hooded figure garbed in robes forged of slowly gold from head to toe sat cross-legged and closed-eyed while holding a hand-seal that couldn't be formed by mortal or Ascended hands. The surroundings were enveloped in a heavy, tenebrous mist, only the immediate arm-length of space was clear of the gold-robed figure.

"Oh? What are you two up to?" The figure lifted their head as their voice caused the heavens to tremble, sparks of golden light came and went in and out of existence like ignited flames. The language they spoke was not the Mortal Language or the Language of Mysticism, but something else entirely different, on a fundamentally higher level in terms of each spoken syllable and the conveyed meaning of every word.

"The great daos holding a contest? What has ensnared your hard-to-acquire interest?" The gold-robed figure lightly breathed out a golden mist that slithered and twisted until it formed a man-sized gold mirror that reflected their vague silhouette. The mirror began to distort as the reflection showed a different image-or at least trying to.

Without warning, the golden mirror melted as if scorched by the heated rays of a solar star. Then, as if the process wasn't enough or fast enough, the golden mirror violently dissipated into vapor as if it was transmuted into water and superheated. But that wasn't enough, as the vapor caused the air before the figure to vibrate, and then space itself vanished out of existence leaving a great black void until it was filled in by the surrounding space.

"..." The gold-robed figure was silent.

But even then, once again as if it was a delayed effect, an eternal aura descended as if it was a sovereign of all immortals. The descent of this eternal aura caused the shadowy mist to condense a little more. After sweeping across the limited space, lingering briefly on the space that previously held the mirror, the aura left without doing anything else.

"What in the fuck..." The gold-robed figure's hands quivered. "DID YOU HAVE TO STRENGTHEN MY CAGE?!" A thunderous yell that originated from the depths of their existence rumbled out, but the mist held it all in and prevented it from affecting the entire universe.

"Are you really going to do this? This is no different than offending Sage Springfield without any resolution," Young Master Shang asked with half-hearted energy. It was easy to tell that Young Master Shang was merely being the voice of reason for the sake of it, but he wanted to see the world in chaos while drinking good wine.

Wei Wuyin didn't respond directly, but from the resolve contained within his eyes, there was no stepping back from his decision.

A few minutes earlier.

The two had already seen Sage Springfield arrive at the other side of the galactic layer using stellar transit light alongside three others. The fact he came himself was indicative of how heavily he valued his efforts in the Sky Heart Galaxy. Afterward, Wei Wuyin opened a Void Portal and entered. Young Master Shang could only follow with a belly full of questions.

Upon exiting the Void Portal, Young Master Shang's first word was: "AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

He felt an invincible force yank at him. Instinctively, he relied on his Mystic Star Phase cultivation base and drove it to its maximum, executing all sorts of methods, but was unable to stop him from being pulled forth at speeds that caused him to see the far-off stars as light strings. An extreme sensation of deadly crisis caused his scalp to grow numb and his bones to creak.

It was then that he felt as if hope and life had a tangible existence as a strong, powerful arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him closer. The warmth of life was enough to change his perspective of things.

When he regained his senses, he discovered that he was in Wei Wuyin's arm. The unearthly handsome visage of his savior left him speechless in heart and soul. Was this why women often fell in love with their heroes? Internally, he clicked his tongue as he realized a great truth.

Wei Wuyin moved back and they seemed to step across a vast distance, and then Wei Wuyin tossed him aside like a sack of potatoes without the slightest gentleness, reminding Young Master Shang of his status and reality. After stabilizing himself, Young Master Shang made a drinking gesture and his flagon seemed to appear when it wasn't there before, and he took a swig.

Then and only then was his nerves calmed and his heart healed enough to focus on other matters, thinking: 'Where are we?' He looked around and found himself before a gigantic jet-black void. Additionally, all of his spiritual sense was being drawn to the void, so he speculated this was a restrictive, forbidden area that forbade spiritual sense. He wasn't too concerned. Since Wei Wuyin could enter, he could similarly leave.

'We're at the center,' Wei Wuyin answered as his silvery eyes illuminated with spiritual light, his Celestial Eyes were pushed to their strongest limit, and with his Spiritual Strength at an all-time peak, what he could perceive would shock even Mystic Overlords and Sages.

"The center? The center of what?" He looked left and right, but nothing but darkness and Wei Wuyin. He was curious how he could see Wei Wuyin and nothing else. From his knowledge, this location seemed to be devoid of all light energies.

"..." Wei Wuyin.

"...!" Young Master Shang's head shook slightly. It was only then that Young Master Shang realized that his words and spiritual energies to transmit his words weren't going through to Wei Wuyin. Wei Wuyin had sent that message into his Sea of Consciousness directly!

He then thought of his question.

'The center of the Sky Heart Galaxy. To be exact, we're in the center of the center.' Wei Wuyin responded as the glow in his eyes kept illuminating the immediate surroundings. Young Master Shang realized that Wei Wuyin's glow from his eyes was why he could see him. It was as if he was acting as a light source that was unaffected by that terrifying force that almost dragged him to heavens knows where.

'Center of the Sky Heart Galaxy? Stop kidding! Haha, that's a supermassive black hole. Not even Sages would dare to enter the heart of a galaxy or even near it. The gravitational force alone is enough to snuff out souls. Stop joking around,' Young Master Shang took several shaky swigs of his flagon, each swig more than the last, as his eyes drifted left and right with the memory of his recent deadly crisis, and then visibly reeled back as his eyes bulged outwards.

'HOLY ALCOHOL! HOW IN THE HEAVENS ARE WE STILL ALIVE?!?!' Young Master Shang almost spewed his wine, but puckered his lips and refused to let go a single drop. If he was suddenly killed, he refused to let his last act be wasting any of it. 'Hol' up! Did you say the center of the center? Are we at the center of a freaking supermassive black hole that could maintain a galaxy's shape?!'

His mind was swirling as he instinctively got closer to Wei Wuyin for the faint sensation of comfort and safety. He was very knowledgeable of the galaxies and their structure as it was a form of education within the Blessed Yri Empire's elite curriculum for cultivation, and as such was fully aware of the dangers of a supermassive black hole.

'Why are we here?' After calming down, Young Master Shang finally mustered up the will to ask a relevant question that wouldn't involve secrets of Wei Wuyin's cultivation base.

Wei Wuyin replied immediately, 'When Teng Jiangwen came here, he noticed an irregularity in the shape of the galactic shell, the Galactic Layer, from several millennia ago when he last visited as a Mystic Overlord. Sensing this abnormality, he investigated the cause and discovered that it originated from something within the heart of the Sky Heart Galaxy, this supermassive black hole.'

'He did? He never told me that...' Young Master Shang couldn't fathom how Wei Wuyin knew about this information. Did he interrogate Teng Jiangwen in that illusion or siphon his memories somehow? But acquiring the memories of any being was still difficult let alone a legitimate Sage! They stood at the peak of the Mystic Ascendant Realm!

'Not only that, he learned that Sage Springfield had come here and left behind his ship, The Easy Spring, here under the guard of a top-class World Emperor. After some drunken discussions, the captain left behind to oversee the vessel had unintentionally leaked that Sage Springfield had left the Sky Heart Galaxy injured with a Formation Master.

'Teng Jiangwen had thought it was due to a conflict between beast and cultivator at the time, but after thinking about it on your journey to the Onestar Galaxy, he pieced together the puzzle and realized that a formation was likely established somewhere in the entire galaxy and was distorting the galactic shell.'

'Formation? What type of formation could distort the entire shape of a galactic shell? And what type of formation could even do that? Just thinking of the level must be peak Mystic-World or quasi-Mystic-Heaven? Maybe even then it might not be enough.' Young Master Shang got used to using thoughts to communicate, and his restless heart grew calm as he realized that Wei Wuyin was acting as an anchor for gravity and light, creating a secure space. Did this mean that Wei Wuyin had a black hole in him? Strong enough to contend with a supermassive black hole?!

Wei Wuyin said, 'That was his thoughts too. What level of formation could it be and for what purpose? But Teng Jiangwen was a sinister fellow with great instincts. He left behind a Seed of an Incarnation that could be activated at any time to further investigate or interfere. He intended to always find some advantage in the Sky Heart Galaxy.

'He later activated the Incarnation and sent it to investigate the effects of the formation, but he was unable to determine its purpose.' Wei Wuyin's eyes at this point were blistering with radiance.

Young Master Shang was shaken, beginning to speak using his spiritual sense before shifting swiftly upon realizing his folly, 'Not even Teng Jiangwen was able to figure it out?! What happened to his Incarnation?'

'It reached roughly a million miles from the supermassive black hole before it was sucked in and killed. That was the last thing Teng Jiangwen received through his Incarnation.'

Young Master Shang immediately responded, 'But how? An Incarnation of Teng Jiangwen should at least have the strength of a World Emperor or Original Magistrate.'

Wei Wuyin didn't respond for a long time, and Young Master Shang didn't ask any other questions as he felt that being in a supermassive black hole and not dying was a experience that he could tell others about. He wanted to relish this event a little. Drinking from his flagon, he was curious how Wei Wuyin was maintaining an area of regulated gravity and light in a black hole.

Unbeknownst to Young Master Shang, Wei Wuyin hadn't just survived the center of a black hole but had become one during his Gravity Source Astral Tribulation, resulting in the birth of four black-white holes that merged, forming a singular gargantuan Cosmic Dual-Singularity as his Gravitational Central Mass.

When it came to the control of gravitational forces, he was unrivaled since that day, even amongst Ascended beings at the Mystic Ascendant Realm. After all, the Gravitational Central Mass was solely used to assist a cultivator in condensing their energies and maintaining their forms, much like an atmospheric layer and the planet's core. Unlike ordinary cultivators, Wei Wuyin used a black hole to do so!

If other cultivators had Sky Layers and Planetary Cores as Astral Cores, then Wei Wuyin, since the Gravity Emission Phase, could be likened to Galactic Layers and a supermassive black hole!

'Teng Jiangwen's Incarnation didn't perish due to the black hole's gravity. He's not so naive as to forget to establish an anchor in the void and a way to return should he be drawn into the black hole. Moreover, he grasped a Minor Law, so entering and surviving within the black hole that was in a relatively dormant state due to oversaturation isn't difficult to do for a few seconds, even for an Incarnation,' Wei Wuyin finally replied with furrowed brows.

'But it still died, right? If the black hole didn't do it, what did?' Young Master Shang saw the logic immediately and agreed with it. Even if Teng Jiangwen's Incarnation were to die instantly, it certainly wouldn't be because of the black hole's most obvious danger-gravity.

"..." Young Master Shang began recalling all the words that Wei Wuyin had said and his eyes widened! 'It was sucked in, but within this area, any transmission of Spiritual Energy or transmissions wouldn't work, including Spiritual Linking Spells between the main body and Incarnation, right? So that suggests that something else killed the Incarnation while it was within the black hole and fast enough for it to die without reacting...'

'Sage Springfield set up quite a few things. Unfortunately for him, he didn't establish any Void Restrictive Formations that could stop me.' Wei Wuyin then swiped his hands across his hands, extracting some of the unique spiritual force generated by the Celestial Eyes, and brandished it forward, unleashing a wave of silvery radiance.

"..." Young Master Shang's eyes widened uncontrollably. The scene before unveiled suddenly, and he felt his heart palpitate and skip a few beats.

Wei Wuyin, however, revealed a wisp of disappointment within his eyes, but then that disappointment changed drastically as he thought of something, and a faint smile formed on his lips.

"AN EDICT SEED! IT'S AN EDICT SEED!!" Young Master Shang shouted verbally into the vacuum of the black hole, gesticulating with a hint of madness. Before them, revealed by the silvery light, was a pine tree of hundreds of thousands of miles in size, with its trunk stabbed into the heart of the black hole. The leaves had glistening golden veins that exuded a heavenly aura. It was entirely unaffected by the gravity of this inhospitable environment. In fact, it seemed to be extremely vibrant and healthy as if it was nourished every second of every day with the best resources.

Young Master Shang immediately noticed the tree's existence upon seeing it. However, he was shaken once again after getting a longer look at it, and his heart began to pound violently.

"IT'S...A...OH MY HEAVENS!" Young Master Shang couldn't believe the treasures in this galaxy and all the treasures that Wei Wuyin had come across, but this...

He finally used his thoughts as he hoped they transmitted to Wei Wuyin, "This is a Soul-Bound Treasure! With a Wood Edict Seed as its core." There were three types of 'bound' treasures in the world of cultivation. The first were Spirit-Bound Treasures, such as the Spirit-Bound Lotus which assisted the transition into a Spiritualist by amplifying the connection and synchronicity with body and spirit, essentially granting the opportunity to become a Spirit of Cultivation themselves. They were mostly used to concoct Spiritual-based Alchemical Products, establish Spirit-affecting Formations and Arrays, create Spiritual Treasures, or cultivate the aspects of Spirits-Spiritual Strength, Spiritual Energy, Spiritual Aura, and Spiritual Sense. They were the most common of the three.

The Spirit-Bound Lotus was one of the things that the late Lin Ming had used to become a Spiritualist! Although only briefly.

The second type was Soul-Bound Treasures that could help assist the connection with one's True Soul or cultivate the soul or True Soul. This was boundless in use, especially for Sages and Resonant Soul Realm cultivators, even Spiritforms! They were so valuable that entire forces have entered intense conflict over them many times, and these forces had Resonant Soul Realm experts at the helm!

The third type was the rarest of the three only known as Dao-Bound Treasures. Not much was known about them, but there was an incident about five million years ago that caused multiple galaxies to suffer enormous and unsustainable losses.

To think that Young Master Shang wouldn't just see an Edict Seed but one that was simultaneously a Soul-Bound Treasure! Seeing this, he concluded that what killed Teng Jiangwen's Incarnation was likely whatever protective formation established by Sage Springfield!

'Sage Springfield is a fortunate sage!' Young Master Shang exclaimed.

Wei Wuyin smiled with a hint of mirth, 'Sage Springfield?'

Young Master Shang revealed Wei Wuyin's implying tone, and he couldn't help but laugh in this soundless area.

"Are you really going to do this? This is no different than offending Sage Springfield without any resolution," Young Master Shang asked with half-hearted energy. It was easy to tell that Young Master Shang was merely being the voice of reason for the sake of it, but he wanted to see the world in chaos while drinking good wine.

Wei Wuyin didn't respond directly, but from the resolve contained within his eyes, there was no stepping back from his decision. After all, he had already decided to kill Sage Springfield!