Paragon of Sin

Auntie Liao?

Huoyan Liulan's movements were carefully observed by everyone present, infested with a fascination of discovery and intrigue. At first, their attention was all heavily invested into Wei Wuyin's killing of an Earthly Saint as a mortal. They wondered with thoughts as quick as lightning how he achieved such a thing. After all, the refined Physique of an Ascended was not ordinary nor simple. Their flesh, bone, even blood contained a uniquely constructed foundation that made them harder than astral steel. 

However, Huoyan Liulan's trembling fingers holding the featureless mask followed by her emotional exclamation set aside all other thoughts. The most confusing aspect of this was Ma Zheng, whose expression had drastically shifted from its typical serenity to abject shock. 

Huoyan Liulan's head tilted sideways and a little down as her left hand reached out towards the corpse, unable to muster words. 

"Who's this Auntie Liao?" Lady Clearwind was the most direct amongst the group and wasted no time asking the question on everyone's mind. Instinctively, Sun Li, Faye Liying, and Han Yuhei recalled all known Earthly Saints within the stellar region. Alas, no Liao came to mind. 

Ma Zheng's reaction was extremely telling, clearly aware of who this Auntie Liao was. Wei Wuyin gave both these Earthly Saints a glance before settling his attention on the unmasked corpse. The corpse was of a female, not an outstanding beauty by any means. In fact, she had a middle-aged visage adorned with bulging veins of dusky grey. Her skin tone was abnormally pale as if sunless for a thousand years and her lips were painted with a glaring red. 

The red lipstick shone with a bloody light bestowing them some peculiar charm. Wei Wuyin suspected the lipstick applied had been made from an alchemical paste using refined blood essence. And from his acute beastly sense alongside his alchemical knowledge, he knew it was likely the case. 

Her long dark hair was loose and messy, clearly the result of a hectic, stressful battle. 

"Auntie Liao…" Huoyan Liulan reached out to rub the paler than pale skin of the female corpse. She instantly felt the coldness from her skin. The complete lack of warmth Huoyan Liulan felt made the corpse feel inhuman. She thought this was a result of a strange cultivation method, not the Heavenly War Spirit's monstrous absorption of all her innate energies, including heat. 

"..." Sun Li had never seen Huoyan Liulan so emotional before. Her usual fiery and haughty visage had fallen here, showing a rare trace of extreme warmth. When she saw an injured Han Yuhei step forward, his Mystic Aura seething ever-so-slightly in preparation, Sun Li finally snapped out of her thoughts.

Right.

Wei Wuyin had just killed this Earthly Saint. What if…

Ma Zheng walked over and touched Huoyan Liulan's shoulder, giving it a slight caress of consolation, saying: "She's not the Auntie Liao you knew." 

Those words felt as if a bit of conversation had taken place yet the others were unqualified to hear it. They knew there was an inside story. 

"Who's Auntie Liao?" Wei Wuyin finally spoke up at this moment and openly too. Huoyan Liulan lifted her eyes to stare at Wei Wuyin, an indescribable emotion flickering within her gaze. 

Ma Zheng heaved a soft sigh, "Liao Shuyu. She was a Deacon of the Hexaflame Starfield's Holy Land and leading Mystic-tier Organization, the Inferno Solaris Church." Unlike the Ninestar Starfield's ladder-like hierarchy and jurisdictions of the Ninestar Sainthall or the sole Monarchy of the Aeternal Sky Starfield, the Hexaflame Starfield wasn't as united or organized. The leading force was its strongest force, and it was worthy of such, but the internal layout of the society was dispersed and divided. 

The Inferno Solaris Church was this leading force, but it was merely that. Huoyan Liulan was a member of this church, and her grandfather was its head. 

"Deacon?" Those aware that a Deacon was the lowest rank for an Ascended by the Inferno Solaris Church's standard, equivalent of an Exalted, was startled. How could a Mystic Star Phase expert become an Earthly Saint? 

"She died over nine thousand years ago, her lifespan coming to an unfortunate end." Ma Zheng added. 

"What?!" It would be a gross understatement to say they were surprised by this! They were terrifyingly shaken.

"That's impossible; she's clearly an Earthly Saint." Faye Liying refuted, pointing to the corpse as the obvious evidence. 

"I buried her…" Huoyan Liulan glared at Faye Liying with wisps of anger, obviously misplaced. She was feeling all sorts of turbulent emotions. Liao Shuyu had essentially been a genuine aunt of hers despite no blood relation. She helped raise her when she was a little girl, growing into her own. 

Ma Zheng's surprise now made sense to Wei Wuyin. He must've known her as well. The concept of nine thousand years ago was vastly beyond Wei Wuyin's sense of time. He wasn't even a hundred years old yet. Yet to these Earthly Saints, ten thousand years might just be half their lifetimes. Or Ma Zheng, who lived a full 30,000 years of life.

It was hard to grasp this reality without a prompt, and this revelation forced Wei Wuyin to reflect on his youthful existence. Just seven or so thousand years ago, the King of Everlore had arrived. A thousand or so years before that, the King of Everlore and Wu Yu had just been born in the Desolate Dragnet Region. 

Wei Wuyin was only briefly distracted before he inspected the woman yet again. She was an Ascended of the Hexaflame Starfield believed to have been dead? That was highly peculiar. 

He sent a mental message to the Heavenly War Spirit, "Why is her face covered in black veins? Was that you?" Wei Wuyin knew the Heavenly War Spirit had essentially devoured the energies and Mystic Soul of Liao Shuyu, so this type of consumption might leave marks. Furthermore, he knew she wasn't actually deceased yet.

After all, shouldn't he receive Karmic Luck by now? Just the halo was a sign that Mystic Soul was drawn alongside the soul it was connected to. It was unlikely the Heavenly War Spirit was eating her actual soul, but when he recalled the Ever-Knight whose body was destroyed yet remained alive, he imagined that Liao Shuyu was in a similar state, dying slowly to the Heavenly War Spirit.

"No. The icky blackness within her veins is the remnant trace of Necro Energy. That type of power is nasty." The Heavenly War Spirit replied with a wisp of contempt in its voice. Hearing that from a little girl felt a little amusing, as if she found a disgusting bug on the street. 

"Necro Energy?" This was the first time Wei Wuyin had heard of it, but he did know of a mythological tale told by the Red Dove City's elders describing a demon that could control the deceased corpses. He was called Nekro. 

"Necro Energy. It's born from a Unique Intent intermixed with Spiritual Energies, much like your mount's Nirvanic Flame Intent." The Heavenly War Spirit's answer caused Wei Wuyin to recall Ma Zheng's explanation of Nirvanic Flame Intent. 

He said, word for word: "This type of unique Intent isn't the same as the others, because while they can fall into classifications of normal Intent, divided into Seed, Awakened, and World Heart, it's been infused and modified thoroughly by strange laws and worldly forces. They are, however, unable to be comprehended from the world unlike all things within the Material Dao. The Nirvanic Flames Intent, for example, can only be comprehended from the Essence Blood of a Fire Phoenix and only if one has cultivated the correct physique to handle its overbearing power." It was the same explanation he had given Xue Yifei.

"So is she dead?" Wei Wuyin inquired as he closely observed the blackness within the corpse's veins. 

"She will be," the Heavenly War Spirit said. She verified Wei Wuyin's thoughts that she was still alive, her Mystic Soul tethering her soul, preventing it from being drawn to Hell. But this didn't alleviate Wei Wuyin's curiosity.

"But she died before?" Wei Wuyin sought clarification.

"She never died, but her body surely did at one point. The trace amount of the Necro Energy is just a side effect of experiencing total bodily death, a byproduct of life, death, and artificial resurrection. It's like an infection that grows inside a deceased body, causing decay and erosion, infused with the essence of negative life and souls. It's hard to explain in mortal terms…" The Heavenly War Spirit struggled to get out the correct words. Just the term 'negative life and soul' baffled Wei Wuyin. 

In truth, Wei Wuyin felt all it said was total nonsense. It wasn't that its words lacked cohesion or a linear train of thinking, but he just couldn't wrap his head around what it meant overall. His questions might've been answered by that explanation, but he just couldn't tell. 

He tried a few more times, asking how Liao Shuyu was still alive with Necro Energy if it meant her body was dead, but he merely got the same answer: She isn't dead. Or better, she died and now had Necro Energy within her. 

Where did the Necro Energy come from? Why was it there if she came back to life? Did someone resurrect her? Was she ever resurrected? If so, how was she resurrected? Did Wu Yu or Hong Ru have Necro Energy? But those questions kept bringing up terms he simply wasn't familiar with and the Heavenly War Spirit couldn't quite explain. He could only marvel at his second encounter with a Unique Intent and its profoundities.

In the end, he left his Sea of Consciousness as he saw Huoyan Liulan had lifted Liao Shuyu in her arms in a bridal carry with watery eyes. To see an Earthly Saint act so emotional, she must've been very important to her. 

"I'll bring her home," Huoyan Liulan softly declared. The others were mostly silent as they glanced at each of the masked Earthly Saints. Could each of these cultivators be deceased beings of old? Were they refined as puppets or something else entirely? 

"We need to investigate these people's origins more closely before we take further action," Faye Liying said. Wei Wuyin had essentially declared war on Trueborn and he directly killed one of theirs without blinking an eye. Clearly, Wei Wuyin had marked them all for death. But this Auntie Liao of Huoyan Liulan brought forth so, so many questions. 

"That's not for us to decide," Han Yuhei breathily stated. Faye Liying's brows furrowed as she looked towards the exceptional youth with an otherworldly handsomeness. Wei Wuyin was clearly the decider of these masked Earthly Saints' fates.

"Do you need to absorb more?" Wei Wuyin asked the Heavenly War Spirit. They technically had an all-she-could-eat buffet lined up if that was one of her functions. But shockingly, the Heavenly War Spirit declined: "I didn't absorb her quintessential essence for my own enjoyment; I did it for your safety." 

"My safety?" Wei Wuyin was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"The talisman is deeply intertwined with their Mystic Souls, any attempt to kill them, cripple their Mystic Soul, or forcefully remove the talisman, will result in its immediate activation and thus detonation." Was the Heavenly War Spirit's response, causing Wei Wuyin's heart to grow abnormally heavy.

He felt that the Heavenly War Spirit might be an expression of his Karmic Luck in action. There was not a single indication of these things in his senses and no one else noticed the talisman, yet the Heavenly War Spirit had essentially saved their lives from their insidious schemes. His actions could've brought all of them a fatal calamity. 

"I can't do that again in my current state. My state hasn't reached that level yet." The Heavenly War Spirit felt a little disgruntled with that sentence. After all, it was a Heavenly War Spirit. At worst, a Demi-Mortal Lord Phase absolute genius of the War Dao should've acquired her, not a lowly mortal barely at the Realm World Phase of the Astral Core Realm. By now, she should be able to exert the minimum of her means. 

But nope.

Her thoughts weren't that far off from War Commander Zhan Zheng's when he was first summoned. It was clearly outside of expectations that a mortal could afford either of them. She had to feed off Wei Wuyin's mental energies just to speak. Moreover, she couldn't speak in Mysticism, so her words would come off as very confusing and nonsensical for advanced topics. To dumb it all down was incredibly frustrating. 

Wei Wuyin thought for a long moment. He looked at Ma Zheng with a heavy gaze. Then, without holding anything back, he proceeded to explain the talismans and the Heavenly War Spirit's other discoveries via spiritual transmission, leaving out the Heavenly War Spirit's existence.

Ma Zheng's expression drastically changed. "That…makes things troublesome." Rubbing his chin, Ma Zheng swept his aged eyes over each captive. He recalled that strange feeling as if the masked figure was smiling beneath the mask, finding it quite strange that a cultivator would be willing to simply die after reaching their level. 

When he looked at the masked captives, many of their eyes were deeply locked onto the corpse of Liao Shuyu as if they were incredibly shocked. Some of their heads, especially the Demi-Mortal Lords, stared at Wei Wuyin as if he was some unholy monster. While their eyes were concealed, it was simply a feeling.

'Do they know about the talismans' purpose?'  The strangest of thoughts entered his mind. What if...these masked captives…didn't know?