Paragon of Sin

The first time he'd heard of Origin Essence didn't originate from Wang Yutian, but Eden! During his Sky Ruler Astral Tribulation, the Sky-World Lightning Tribulation, Eden had said two things before immediately descending into slumber: "Origin Essence! Zenith Origin State!"

He had almost entirely forgotten about the first two words, purely focusing on the Zenith Origin State. It was only after sensing a thicker version of it coalescing within the tokens was he brought back to that memory.

"So the Sky-World Lightning that was condensed by their joint effort was Origin Essence? Did Origin Essence fuse with their Mortal States, inducing their transformations?" He quietly mumbled out these questions, feeling intrigued at the prospects of what this meant.

With a thought, he lifted his hand and started to extract a portion of his internalized, personalized mana. It was a glowing glob without substance. It was invisible to the naked eye, and the glow was the only indication of its existence. This was deliberately done by Wei Wuyin.

As it was brought out, he felt the ambient mana that was sealed by the unique means of the Season of Regression encroach towards him in a slow but excited manner. He observed for an hour, using his Celestial Eyes to take note of the changes and interactions that his mana had with the unrefined, unfiltered mana of the world.

As the worldly mana integrated into the glob, the glob didn't expand or grow, it merged with his own seamlessly with no noticeable effects. It was as if it had returned to its origins.

After watching this for a full hour, noticing no change, Wei Wuyin used his other hand to bring out a white glowing orb of light. It was a perfect sphere and gave off an elemental aura. This was a strand of his Elemental Origin Intent, manifested in the image that best expresses its existence. The sphere was like a perfect world of acceptance, transformations, and endless permutations.

He started to gather the ambient elemental energies that were similarly restrained. Shockingly, he couldn't shatter the restrictions with just his Elemental Origin Intent. "It's because its incomplete," Wei Wuyin deduced with a faint frown.

When he ascended the Astral Core Realm, underwent the Mortal Star Formation Tribulation, it was accompanied by Saber Heart Intent and Elemental Heart Intent blueprints, guiding him onto the path of cultivation. Unfortunately, he fell short of Elemental Heart Intent, lacking nine high-level Intents, only possessing five at the time. Still, his Saber Heart Intent manifested.

The Elemental Origin Intent could be considered a Lesser Intent, just like Saber Intent in comparison to Heart of the World, World of the Saber Intent.

His Saber Heart Intent can shatter these bindings with ease, bringing all ambient energies and essences under his control, infecting and converting them all into Saber Energies.

He observed the Elemental Origin Intent's manifestation for an hour as well, slowly seeing how the ambient elemental energies reacted. He discovered that their reactions were extremely similar, except Elemental Origin Intent lacked the means to break the bindings and merge with it.

Suddenly, he had an idea. He tested it on desolate power, since he has Desolate Earth Intent, and attracted that ambient source. And it reacted just like the ambient mana had, mixing with and merging with the Elemental Origin Intent manifestation with no outward changes.

"They're the same!" But this only served to confuse him. He obtained Origin Essence after his Elemental Origin Intent was formed. It took a while before he breathed out a faint breath of turbid air, "I'm overthinking this. There is no need for Origin Essence to form Elemental Origin Intent. Instead, Origin Essence can emulate certain Elemental Origin Intent's effects, and that comes from an elevated type of Mana."

After coming to this conclusion, not getting lost in which came first, the chicken or egg puzzle, Wei Wuyin relaxed, reabsorbing his mana and strand of intent.

"The possibility still remains that my Zenith Origin State Astral Soul's Refined Mana has qualities of Origin Essence, and might even be able to create it. I wonder if this contributes heavily to my concoction success rate, that ability to merge essences, energies, and various forms of powers together." He was well-aware that his talent in Alchemy was secondary to the aspects of his cultivation and the benefits they provided.

The Alchemic Soul was the first benefit that allowed him to produce a higher form of alchemical energies than his cultivation, making concocting products easier.

His vast Sea of Consciousness allowed the expenditure of mental energies and exhaustion that usually occurred a non-factor.

The Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity allowed him to view the flow of energies and essence without injecting his spiritual sense, which leads to dilution and even spiritual exhaustion.

The physical senses and attributes that his bloodline provided allowed him to accurately pinpoint issues and withstand powerful surges of energies that might backfire on him during the concoction process.

These four aspects of his cultivation allowed him to ignore the vast majority of issues that alchemists came across. This coupled with his talent in controlling, producing, and infusing alchemical energies defined the totality of his potential as an alchemist.

But now, there might be a fifth aspect he was ignoring. "The Origin Essence must've allowed the attraction of the strange force that produced the transcendent-quality Refraction World-Light Elixir!" He had his unverified suspicions before, but he was more than ninety-percent certain of this now.

"I wonder if these will help me during the Mystic-Rank of the Alchemic Dao. Will I be able to retain my success rate? My outstanding concoction time? The lack of impure-grade products? Yet, I feel all the more driven to explore that limit." With Mystic-Rank Alchemical Products, he didn't know what limits he might reach. In fact, a single product might total all of his effort thus far. It was his most reliable path to power, and ensured that he never underestimated this world or its geniuses.

With this settled in his mind, he directed his attention back to the incomplete nonagon token. There were eight auras within.

Ori's voice resounded as she playfully named them each, "Transformative Water! Grand Earth! Grandgale Wind Intent! Omni-Alloy Metal! Dark Lightning! Nine Meadow Intent! Scorching Ash Magma Intent! Absolute Zero Ice Intent!" As she named them off, she left out the final Intent, Absolute Hot Fire Intent that Tang Xingyun still possessed.

Wei Wuyin was shocked by the reveal of all eight Apex-level Intents! The most shocking of which was the Nine Meadow Intent! That was the exact same intent imbued naturally within Qing Qiumu's meridians! From birth, she had the nurturing of the highest level of Wood Intent.

An arc lifted from the corner of his lip, "You truly are the most impressive Wood Cultivator in this generation. You're more blessed than Blessed in some ways." But then again, every last one of Long Chen's companions was outstanding. Wu Baozhai was the incubator for the Imperial Heaven Essence. Lin Ziyan's bloodline contained the aspects of the Haven Heart Qi Method, allowing multiple Spirits of Cultivation. Lian Yu, rest her soul, had an Aquatic Dragon Bloodline. Even Na Xinyi possessed a Yin Physique that, in theory, could reach untold potential.

She was, by far, the best dual cultivation partner in the entire starfield, even better than Jiang Feilang's Yin Renewal Physique.

All of them had endless talent and potential, shocking even him.

"Time to eat!" Wei Wuyin said, causing Ori to explode out of his Dantian with an excited tremor.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Ori's excitement was truly boundless, infectious, and lovely. With a toss, Wei Wuyin gave the white sphere the token that contained the auras of eight apex-level Intents! It was time to reach the Elemental Heart Intent!