Paragon of Sin

Heptasage Pillar Stellar Region.

Within the growing radiant mass of the Star Seed, Wei Wuyin had resumed the purification process by exerting his Elemental Heart Intent to expunge the deeply-rooted Mystic Intent within, thereby ensuring that a state of natural harmony would form between it, the heavens, and the Daos that existed throughout all creation. 

The sight of 10,001 Earthly Saints infusing their Star Power into the seed had halted; the Spirits of War had returned to the Nexus War Flag to devour and refine copious resources to recuperate their lost Mystic Power while Wu Yu was doing the same off-site. The act of recovery itself would take a long period, hence why Wei Wuyin estimated the time for the completion of his project to be extremely high. In exchange, he would have the best possible Star Seed imaginable.

A fiercely ambitious endeavor that would be regarded as insanity in action if described to others. 

"If you succeed, your World-Bound Star Domain will truly be heaven-defying." The Heavenly War Spirit said with awe, feeling for the first time that the term 'heaven-defying' was the most appropriate description for this project. 

"I still don't think it's worth the risk." Bai Xiu was still sullen and fearful, but compared to her previous state of hugging her knees and seemingly on the verge of tears, she had regained a level of calmness and confidence. She wasn't present when Wei Wuyin fought against his trio of Ascended subordinates, so she had been unaware of his genuine strength. But she had observed how he fought against He Bojing while at the edge of her seat, and she was deeply awed by the outcome of the battle. 

She knew that Wei Wuyin's true offensive and defensive power relied on his Saber Soul and Elemental Origin Soul respectively, so, to fight against an Earthly Saint, an existence that had grasped and been refined by the Mystic Dao to a certain degree, as a mere Timelord, changed her perspective of what was possible. Wei Wuyin could actually complete his Starlord Tribulation even if he spiked the difficulty to absurdly high levels by binding himself to this Solar Star of his. 

While immersed in the cluster of molten solar energy, Wei Wuyin continuously received reports from the outside. Fortunately, he had set up a system of intelligence with the ability to filter out repeating reports so that he wouldn't need to read hundreds of thousands of similar reports. 

From the movement of the Aeternal Sky Starfield's elite powers to their arrival at the Everlore Domain's doorstep with forceful intentions, to even the happenings within the Everlore God Realm's Evergod Absolute Palace's Main Hall were being fed to him in real-time. It was quite difficult getting eyes in the Everlore Association, given their current situation of fending off attacks on their reputation, but every soul had a price, and every oath had a loophole to exploit.

"The Imperial Advisor…" Wei Wuyin thoughtfully considered this variable. She was unfathomable and unpredictable, even to him, who had memories of another timeline, knowing very little about her origins. She had the Divine Emperor's trust and ear, which was one of the most important aspects of her existence, and she was among the top three Earthly Saints of the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region.

Regardless, his plan was going perfectly at this point—no, it was going even better than perfect as the Imperial Advisor suggested a time limit to the Mythical Oath. Not only had Evergod revealed his ownership of the Heaven Relic, but it was also witnessed and verified by the Imperial Advisor when he showed it. Soon after the valuation was completed, Evergod rushed off to the Everlore Vault, as Wei Wuyin had expected, and his true trap had unfolded. 

Shortly after Evergod entered the Everlore Vault, Wei Wuyin felt a connection begin to establish between his Saint Ring and Evergod's Spatial Ring's dimension. 

"The concept of Storage Spaces is miraculous," Wei Wuyin smirked. In the Myriad Yore Continent, Spatial Rings that held independently forged spaces were largely unknown, Storage Rings taking their place as the commonly used spatial tool. It relied on an extremely advanced spatial principle of interconnected spaces, but it was far, far easier to make for lower-leveled cultivators, needing only the smallest amounts of spatial stone to set up. 

Unlike Spatial Rings, Storage Rings had a designated location where objects were sent and taken out. This was a physical, real-world location resembling a genuine storage space, and sects often raided these locations, so most kept them at the very center of their defenses and home. 

While there, Wei Wuyin's shadow had subtly changed the entire Everlore Vault into his storage space. Anything that entered the space could be 'taken out' by using a medium—Wei Wuyin's Saint Ring. By adding another layer, Wei Wuyin converted all external spatial dimensions within the limits of the vault into his storage space as well.

With a simple thought, as Evergod was focused wholeheartedly on finding the culprit, Wei Wuyin quietly reached into the Saint Alchemist's Spatial Ring's dimension and discreetly extracted everything he wanted within a single breath. And just like that, the greatest heist to have occurred within the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region had been achieved.

Unfortunately, no one knew how intensive the planning of every step went. From purposefully releasing the Neo-Dawn Eclipse Pill as a distraction to forging a tool that could bypass the Everlore Association's formation and arrays to establishing the intricate spatial mark on the entirety of the vault to…

There were simply too many things, all planned for over a decade. The only difference was that the Heavenly World Cores were a plus.

Wei Wuyin held not one, not two, but three Heavenly World Cores in his hand! He casually inspected them, discovering that they had roughly the same amount of Heavenly Mana within them as Bing Tian's core. One of them seemed to have lost about 2-3% of its Heavenly Mana.

Good. 

With this, he had obtained all three.

What Wei Wuyin didn't know was that while Evergod had agreed to allow San Yongli and San Luoyang to keep the Heavenly World Core should the latter succeed, he kept it on his person to 'prevent any unforeseen circumstances'.

If San Yongli had succeeded in making the world believe San Luoyang had become a newly ascended Earthly Saint Alchemist, Evergod would return the core to him. While there was no oath sworn, Evergod had given his word, and San Luoyang had vouched for the trustworthiness of his superior. In the end, it all entered Wei Wuyin's hands. 

As an Exploitative Blessed, Wei Wuyin enjoyed the feeling of seizing all the benefits. Thinking of how this all started because the Heavenly Daos had warned him of Xiao Bing's deadly crisis, he couldn't help but grin. 

"It's time to focus on the Solar Star project fully; I'll leave everything else to the Ascendants and Valkyries." Wei Wuyin decided as he immersed himself in the process of harmonization. 

Unfortunately, even the ultimate victor was taken by surprise by the next onslaught of news!

-----

San Luoyang's ascent to becoming the fifth Alchemic Saint of the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region sent explosive waves throughout the entire Sealed Regions. Moreover, it came on the eve of a joint attempt at pressuring the Everlore Association, the worst time for these powers. The tyrannical party was neutered instantly, becoming a congratulatory party with smiles and fawning words.

The implications of another Alchemic Saint, especially one from the Everlore Association, were deep and far-reaching. The damaged reputation of the Everlore Association swiftly healed while the renewed belief that the Everlore Association had now proven their ability to nurture Alchemic Saints was on the rise! 

Countless young talents in the Alchemic Dao that were on the fence about the Everlore Association due to the Golden Life Pavilion's and Wei Wuyin's continuous smacks stopped hesitating and went on to take the association's admission test to enter their ranks. The prospect of becoming an Alchemic Saint was too alluring to throw away.

Moreover, countless cultivators no longer thought that the Everlore Association was on the decline! They had Evergod and San Luoyang, two Alchemic Saints, for the next thousand years, the bulk of the Mystic-Earth products and high-tier ninth-grade products will likely come from the Everlore Association. Unlike the Ennea-Hall Alchemic Saint and Sky Zenith Alchemic Saint, the Everlore Association was one of the few organizations with a public market for top-tier products alongside the Golden Life Pavilion. 

While the Ninestar Sainthall and Imperial Clan kept their high-end products exclusive, only given to the most loyal alongside restrictive oaths. Other organizations were already trying to establish long-term exclusive-purchasing contracts with the Everlore Association, some even forgoing doing business with the Golden Life Pavilion, swearing actual oaths to secure contracts for Mystic-Earth products. 

While risky, these opportunists were quick to act. If three or four or five Alchemic Saints began to rise in the Everlore Association in the next few thousand years, as they just proved that they could nurture an Alchemic Saint, they would regret not trying to establish good relations even at a slight cost to their options.

-----

Evergod eked out from the Mythical Oaths barely by leveraging these newfound attitudes. By making certain promises and receiving advance payment, he scavenged together 450,000 Mystic Earth Stones from the Aeternal Sky Starfield's elite forces. Similar to the Everlore Association, many organizations had vaults that contained their treasures and financial reserves that were accumulated over thousands upon thousands of years. Given the rich mystic-graded solar essence environment of the Aeternal Sky Starfield, it produced the highest quantity of Mystic materials, many of which couldn't be used because of the extremely low number of Ascended beings relative to the rate of natural production. 

Most forces even had specialized environments that grew unique materials at the mystic-grade, such as the Stellar Icy Dew of the Bing Clan or Stillwater Blood of the Grand Horse Realm's Endless Stagnation Sea. 

However, while the world saw the Everlore Association as thriving, they were unaware that it had suffered greatly…

-----

"ARGH! THAT BASTARD!" San Yongli shouted angrily as she tossed aside some pieces of furniture. For the last minute or so, she was in a tantrum of epic proportions. And she was justified too, as Evergod merely said that her Heavenly World Core went 'missing'. He didn't feel the need to offer an explanation to a mortal or out his ineptitude at keeping his possessions.

In San Yongli's eyes, that thieving bastard pocketed both Heavenly World Cores. What trustworthy? He was nothing but a vile fiend! 

Not only had she lost the Cauldron of Utmost Awakening, a tool she used to help forge herself into a top-tier talent by converting any product into peak-quality, but she had also lost the Heavenly World Core that could push her Origin State to the next level. While she had reached the 1st Origin State, she couldn't refine enough to reach the 2nd Origin State.

Her rage, her anger, and all of it were something anyone could understand. 

After rampaging for a while, her chest heaved up and down as her ruby-like eyes stared at the empty, cracked wall. 

"..."

"It's all because of him." San Yongli blamed Wei Wuyin. His actions had seized her fortunes or ruined them entirely! If Wei Wuyin knew her thoughts, he would be extremely amused given that she, as a Temporal Reincarnator, did just that to other Blessed. 

"What's gone is gone; from now on, I'll no longer hold back," she calmed herself down and began to delve into the Book of Heaven's Path. She no longer intended to cautiously extract the most benefits for fear of altering the timeline. To her, Wei Wuyin, a similar existence, hadn't done so and became an absolute monster in a few decades.

The next few decades were bound to create countless Blessed victims…

----

Elementus Domain, planet Neo-Origin. 

Lin Xianxei and Lin Ming were inspecting the contents of the recent news released by various organizations within their courtyard. 

The former, who always had a passion and reverence for alchemists, had endless awe and excitement in her eyes. "A fifth Alchemic Saint is born! This changes everything!" She was thrilled.

"Everything?" Lin Ming softly asked. 

The voice in his head replied while Lin Xianxei was too engrossed to notice Lin Ming's confusion. A sight that would typically not happen given how she would usually be so attentive. 

"The Everlore Association has proven they can nurture Alchemic Saints without the King of Everlore or an abnormal talent like the Ennea-Hall Alchemic Saint. As an organization, it's like proving they can develop Earthly Saints with their own ability with a high chance of success. It will change the entire landscape of the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region going forward.

"...Haaaa, how interesting. All the recent damage they suffered has mostly been healed with this single incident. What will be that man's counter?" The voice was filled with respect for alchemists as well.

"Counter?" Lin Ming frowned. 

"I guess we'll have to wait and see," the voice responded mysteriously, not clearing up Lin Ming's doubts.

As for the Archaic Chosen, his eyebrows furrowed for a long while before he eventually heaved a sigh. He glanced at his Senior Sister and felt a sense of distance; this inevitably caused his thoughts to turn to Tang Xingyun.

"Stay safe, Yun'er." 

While everyone was focused on the changes in the Everlore Association and the future impact, Lin Ming worried about the state of his imprisoned lover. 

-----

The Golden Life Pavilion didn't make any moves, and Wei Wuyin had once again vanished from the public eye. Considering how elusive he usually was, this wasn't out of the norm, but many speculated that he had gone underground due to the recent rise of the Everlore Association. 

There was, however, a rumor that spread suggesting that the Everlore Vault was robbed. No one knew the origin of this rumor, but its unconfirmed status was halting a little bit of the Everlore Association's rising prestige. Additionally, the details of the exchange of the Heaven Relic were released, further bringing the possibility to be true.

----

Years and years began to pass…

An unprecedented calm formed as the Chosen King Competition grew near.