Paragon of Sin

Giving his sons the brightest smile suffused with the greatest of confidence, he turned to the three Chosen Knights with their Worldly Domains erected to defend against his Sky Pressure. They were the only ones capable of mustering any type of resistance. It was quite admirable. 

This was the difference between his Young Master and these old geezers. Even after their shamelessness, they still couldn't match his casual efforts by proxy. How useless. 

Du Ling lifted his hand to the air, a mass of magma force birthed above his palm. Then, like an expanding Solar Star, it grew to rival his Soul Idol in size! A sweltering heat ravaged the world! 

It was like a ball of the hottest lava, and it dripped downwards throughout the stage, and most Chosen Knights were baffled as their bodies were covered by a foreign power and shifted away, sent out of the stage simply due to being near the dripping wads of magma. 

The heat was enough to roast them alive! 

But Du Ling, holding such an imposingly powerful ball of animated lava, was unaffected. The light from the blazing power illuminated his figure and made him seem as if he was a divinity holding a boiling solar star. This was an Art that Wei Wuyin had devised, bestowed to him via the Neo-Fruits of Eden Spell!

Celestial Magma Art: Radiant Lava Star! 

Soon, Chosen Knight after Chosen Knight was pulled out as the light emissions were unleashing scorching heat that could inflict lethal burns. In three seconds, only Du Ling and the three Chosen Knights remained. 

Xun Yicao's eyes were stupidly wide with his jaws dropping! 

Empress Xiaocheng's eyes brightened, "Such a profound art, capable of absorbing and re-emitting light energies even before the Light Reflection Phase. Not even elite Light Reflection Phase experts would be able to take this attack head-on, yet its radiance is already enough to eliminate everyone. Astonishing." She genuinely praised the art, believing only someone who grasped Light and Magma Energies to the utmost could create such an exquisitely profound art. 

"That's not all," Ma Zheng said with a faint smile.

The Radiant Lava Star began to emit a forceful gravitational power that pulled at the three Chosen Knights! Their eyes widened with fear and horror as they felt their bodies being dragged toward Du Ling. Gravity! The Radiant Lava Star emanated gravitational force!

Empress Xiaocheng's beautiful pupils shrunk slightly, alongside a few others. A Spatial Resonance Phase cultivator was mimicking the power of a Gravity Emission Phase cultivator with an art?! This was…

The Soul Idols of the three Chosen Knights began to break away piece by piece, shooting towards the Radiant Lava Star, and as it absorbed the wisps of Manifested Spirit Energy from those Soul Idols, it began to grow bigger and unleash a stronger heat. 

"It's growing!" An Earthly Saint was deeply startled by this development. Du Ling's art was revealing one surprise after another! 

"It's devouring their Soul Idols, converting their power into its own. Quite a devilish art." Pope Huoyan commented lightly, but the shock in his tone was undisguised. 

"This is a true Spiritual Art," Ma Zheng praised. 

"Agreed," Empress Xiaocheng nodded in agreement. The art contains profundities of certain spiritual spells, a perfect combination of art and spell was called a Spiritual Art. They could be considered the next stage of either, but they were exceedingly difficult to master and use, requiring a complete upstanding of many profundities of energies and cultivation.

Some Ascended beings reached their level yet couldn't merge spell and art as one. The stronger the Spiritual Art, the greater the need for a profound understanding of the energies it involved.

For example, while using an art that involved the Radiant Lava Star's light emissions and gravitational force could be used by following certain rigid steps, to incorporate a spell needed one to grasp intricate knowledge of light and gravity, including their essence.

"While his talent was so-so, who would've thought his comprehensive ability was so disgustingly high." An Earthly Saint said with a faint smile, once again reminding him to never judge a book by its cover. To them, Du Ling was an abnormal talent.

No wonder Wei Wuyin had selected him. With this art grasped, his path to the Gravity Emission Phase was all but decided. With his Neo-Dawn Eclipse Pill's Domain Seed, he was destined to become a Realmlord without any issue. If he wanted, he could've done so already! 

This fact was not lost in any of the Alchemic Sovereigns, their faces unsightly. Even San Luoyang felt his stomach rumble with disgruntled emotions. Didn't this mean that Du Ling could've, in that period of eighteen months, reached the Realm World Phase?

In five years, Wei Wuyin had, using a proxy, created a Realmlord?! While this was in theory, they knew in their heart that this was the unquestionable truth. Du Ling was suppressing his cultivation base!

The feeling was extremely terrible, like a horse kick to the gut. Despite shamelessly bringing forth an Extraction Stage to take advantage of Wei Wuyin's absence, there was no doubt that Wei Wuyin had won! 

Clenched teeth, balled fists, and grunts of frustration resounded. Many felt their faces grow extremely red after recalling their laughing fit, and a few resented Xun Yicao. 

By this point, the Radiant Lava Star hadn't even been thrown, yet the three Chosen Knights were howling and roaring in defiant resistance. While some might find this admirable, it felt pathetic to those Ascended beings and Alchemic Sovereigns. Why were they struggling so much?

The Spiritual Art wasn't even fully used yet.

The Chosen Knight of Xun Yicao had his handsome face distorted in pain as he circulated his Spiritual Force to defend against the devouring power of the Radiant Lava Star. Simultaneously, he executed a series of defensive arts to block the heated radiance and gravitational pull. 

The first to give out was Li Qingli. Her multi-layered ward was pulled in alongside her, and her Soul Idol crumbled. She was aghast with a fearful expression as a silver light enveloped her. In her eyes, the lava mass felt like a raging and hungry monster wanting to devour her whole. With widened eyes, the scene etched itself in her memories.

For a few years, she'll have nightmares of its burning radiance, recalling how it felt on her skin, and how it desired her Soul Idol as if it was her soul. 

Duze Beixuan saw this and his expression changed drastically. While he could resist, he knew that the spiritual art hadn't even been fully unleashed yet, and when it was thrown, he'll likely be incinerated or suffer damage to his foundation.

"I surrender!" He shouted smartly, being sent out too. 

Only Xun Yicao's Chosen Knight remained obstinate, resisting with rage on his once handsome face. The heat had already begun to seep through his ward, causing the surface of his skin to bubble and sizzle. He gritted his teeth in pain and took out his sword. With a defiant roar, he launched his strongest art!

A ray of green sword light shot forth toward Du Ling, aiming for his chest. But as it approached, the sword Ray deviated and fell into the Radiant Lava Star where it was promptly melted away, refined, and causing the mass of lava to grow slightly larger.

This type of tyrannical spiritual art was unimaginably powerful! Not only could it devour Manifest Spirit Energy but even astral force, melting it down to its purest form to fuel itself.

"Incredible!" Du Ling was awed by how powerful this spiritual art was. Wei Wuyin had told him that he'll only need this one move to sweep everyone aside. And he was right! 

Countless eyes stared at the floating figure that carried an over ten-thousand-meter-sized mass of lava in a single hand with awe and breathlessness. He was imposing to the extreme! 

"No!" Xun Yicao's Chosen Knight roared unwillingly. But Du Ling no longer basked in his own power, and he moved his wrist and arm to bring the Radiant Lava Star crashing towards him! It was fully unleashed! 

The Radiant Lava Star smashed against the stage! 

No matter what, they all knew that this attack was the end. The Saint Cyclic Renewal Summit had its winner, and it was none other than Wei Wuyin! 

Xun Yicao's Chosen Knight was a limp mess, with burnt skin and no hair, being held by San Luoyang like a rag-doll. When he escaped from the stage, rescued by the formation, it was slightly slow in circulation, and his body was dangerously close to dying. It was by San Luoyang's grace that he survived.

San Luoyang sighed as he tossed him to Xun Yicao, not caring in the slightest. Instead, he gazed at Ma Zheng who had a faint smile. The formation was interfered with stealthily, and if he hadn't reacted swiftly, Xun Yicao's Chosen Knight would've been burnt to cinders. Unfortunately, he wasn't certain who took action to do so, only had an inkling of an idea.

Regardless, he announced: "The Winner of the Chosen Stage: Du Ling, and his Alchemic Sovereign—Wei Wuyin!"