Paragon of Sin

"..." All around, astonishment and disbelief was mutually shared. The smiling Lin Xianxian, the wide-eyed Lin Xianxei, the reeling Lin Ming, the disbelieving Zhang Ziyi, the stunned Han Yuhei, the laughing Wu Yu, and the amused Bai Lin! 

Wei Wuyin's own emotions were quite complex, especially concerning Lin Xianxian's declaration of taking his earlier joke as a genuine invitation and accepting it nonetheless! This beautiful woman that was a mature version of Lin Xianxei seemed as jubilant as one could be. She was the Sect Master of the True Element Sect! How could she agree to become a maid? 

"Young Lord," Wu Yu urged by thrusting the spatial rings toward Wei Wuyin. Wei Wuyin didn't hesitate to send his spiritual sense to sweep its contents. When he scanned the first spatial ring, he was firstly shaken by the sheer size. It was absolutely massive, even larger than Cai Liuyang's ring!

While its spatial stability wasn't at the mystic-grade, unable to hold mystic-graded material without certain preparations and seals, it held an absolutely outrageous amount of astral stones. Just a soft count and he estimated that it contained two billion astral stones! If converted to mystic stones, this was 200! 

However, this was just pure astral essence stones, not attributed or refined via unique formations. They were just piled to the limits within, and there were large quantities of astral-graded materials within. While organized, they were very haphazardly placed inside.

While he didn't have an approximate value, this single ring contained more than 500 mystic stones of value! 500!!! That was enough to buy large-sized, astral-graded planets, secret realms, and all sorts of mystic-graded armaments, tools, products, and such. And this was just a single ring!

The sheer value caused him to forget about all else, inspecting each with greater intensity and focus than the last. By the time he finished them all, his mouth was extremely wide, jaws almost literally to the floor. He 'looked' to Wu Yu, and his expression hid none of his disbelief.

"Right!" Wu Yu's laughter grew even louder. This wasn't just absurd, this was unbelievable! 

Han Yuhei and Zhang Ziyi looked at the spatial rings, they wanted to send their spiritual senses into it. What was all this? But then Han Yuhei's expression drastically changed, "You stole from them?"

Them? 

Stole? 

Wu Yu grinned at Han Yuhei, "I don't steal. I simply visited those external clans, and they were so awed by my Young Lord's reputation that they offered them a greeting gift. They were quite generous. I tried to decline, but they, tch, they just wouldn't refuse. They begged me to take it. So pushy, those guys."

"Begged?" Han Yuhei was amazed. Such a way to spin absolute lies! 

"You wanna have a look?" Wu Yu looked childishly urged, giving Han Yuhei a random ring. Han Yuhei and Zhang Ziyi were unnaturally curious, inspecting the ring's contents. 

"What the fuck?!" Han Yuhei outright cursed. He jolted in shock. This was an incredible amount of wealth that moved even him. While it was all astral-graded, it could be sold for greater leveled resources or reinvested to generate mystic-graded versions through certain cultivation methods. 

"..." Zhang Ziyi was just speechless. But the light of greed emerged in her eyes, a hair-rising and alluring glow that could both scare and attract all sorts of men. While she was an Ascended being, she was a cultivator first and foremost, and that meant her desire for resources was just as high as everyone else.

"This must be the accumulation of a century of several large-sized planets' essence mines and cultivation fields," Han Yuhei commented a little hoarsely. 

"Haha, there's fifty-two of these rings! Each more glorious than the last!" He dangled them before the two Earthly Saints, feeling extremely satisfied with himself. Such a large haul was amazing, likely rivaling Wei Wuyin's Terra-Mystic Ore, losing out by a hair. 

"Why?" Wei Wuyin asked, his hands rubbing his chin contemplatively. Unlike the rest, he calmed down quickly and thought this through. This was likely thousands of years of accumulated effort from all their planets across the Elementus Domain, but that didn't seem too likely. 

After all, they had to cultivate themselves, right? Even if they had such an absurdly high amount of reserve wealth they couldn't use, why not convert it to greater materials through the Golden Life Pavilion or other trading avenues? Those external clans were sitting on golden bricks—it didn't make sense.

Wu Yu had thought of this too, and this was why he allowed the two Earthly Saints to inspect the rings. He was reading their expressions. He wasn't foolish enough to flaunt wealth unnecessarily. From their expressions and reactions, they seemed just as surprised. Even one of these rings was shocking to them. 

"Illegal activities?" Wei Wuyin threw it out there. They could be discreetly robbing other forces, accumulating it from the shadows, directly going against certain oaths and rules set in place by the Imperial Clan to govern their starfield. 

"Isn't this too exaggerated? Who did they rob? The Imperial Clan?" A war would've been unleashed for a quarter of what these rings represented.

Wu Yu sent spiritually, "This isn't all of it; I have two hundred and three more in my Internal World. Furthermore, there's several boxes and enlarged vaults that contain mystic-graded materials, from Mystic Origin Liquid to high quantities of Mystic Stones."

"...!" Wei Wuyin's mind exploded uncontrollably. Two hundred more? Mystic-graded materials? Did Wu Yu actually rob the freaking Imperial Clan?! That shouldn't be reasonable at all! Why would these external clans of the Elementus Domain have such absurd amounts of wealth? Even the True Element Sect was shocked by a single ring, let alone two hundred and fifty-five! 

The two 'looked' at each other. Wei Wuyin couldn't help but reveal a wry smile. They both thought the same. 

"External Vault." 

In the mortal world, most relied on powerful banks to secure their capital. The cultivation world was extremely perilous, so it was entirely possible for entire forces and clans to be raided and destroyed overnight by a whim if an expert. To set-up a safety net, they would store their extra valuables in these banks, saving them in case of a war or their destruction. They could leave everything behind and rebuild somewhere else. 

The Scarlet Solaris Sect used storage devices, so their vaults were located in their sects. If they were raided, these things were unable to be effectively taken out and transported, and if left alone, they would be captured and extracted. 

So, they would use outside neutral forces to store their savings alongside a guarantee of various oaths by the organization's leadership. The external clans of the Elementus Domain must've been saddled with these oaths, sworn to secrecy, and then stored in safe locations. They acted as External Vaults.

As for secret realms, they still existed in fixed space, and Void Pirates were a legitimate concern. If the secret realm was too far from their base of operations, they were in danger of being raided.

Likely, these resources belonged to various silver and gold-tier forces of various domains or even starfields. Such an underground business! Furthermore, the Elementus Domain was in the Aeternal Sky Starfield, and the external clans could be considered neutral in regards to loyalty, especially since they were allowed a degree of separation from the other mystic forces. An independent mystic force, so to speak! 

Most would just use the Golden Life Pavilion or Imperial Clan for this, but they most likely charged a foot and a half and limited their allowed stock for various reasons. If there was a business aboveboard, there was bound to be a similar one underground.

Wu Yu hadn't just robbed the external clans of the Elementus Domain, he had robbed an unimaginable number of forces!

Wu Yu shrugged his shoulders, "their loss." He kept the spatial rings inside his Internal World, looking at Wei Wuyin. While he kept his grin, his eyes were seeking an order. Should he keep it or return it? In his opinion, they should just keep it all. 

Wei Wuyin heaved a soft sigh. "A life lesson, I guess. Not like they'll ever admit it. They'd become clowns of the stellar region if they did. After all, they all had two more reliable options, likely many more if they existed outside the starfield." It was truly a life lesson. 

Wu Yu was relieved. He really didn't want to return it. With all this wealth, they truly hit it big! 

"I didn't think they were so wealthy! Those parasites!" Zhang Ziyi cursed, but her eyes still emanated intense greed. 

Wei Wuyin pointed to Lin Xianxian. "Wu Yu, mark her. She's my maid as of today." 

Wu Yu was briefly taken aback, giving the beautiful Lin Xianxian a look. "I can see it," he pointed with his index finger and a beam of starry energy shot into Lin Xianxian before she could react. She staggered back instinctively, but she felt nothing. She couldn't help but inspect her body to find a unique mystic rune etched on her right wrist. 

"Mother!" Lin Xianxei exclaimed. She shot down towards Lin Xianxian, ignoring everything else. 

"I'll come back in a bit for you. Let's go," Wei Wuyin said. He felt a little headache from Wu Yu's gains, but he also had an urge to concoct like a madman soon. So much resources was an alchemist's wet dream. 

Bai Lin shot off into the distance. The three Earthly Saints followed, their expression incredibly varied. As Wei Wuyin thought about all this, he had a sudden explosive thought. 

Could he open up his own business?