Paragon of Sin

Since Wei Wuyin's acquisition of the Vanishing Colossus, three months had come and gone. During these three months, the operations as a whole hadn't changed, but their targets and methods after capture had noticeably changed. The most prevalent was the capturing of transport ships that were carrying passengers or goods.

Those caught would be brought into the Vanishing Colossus, then after a brief few days, released back into the world. Sometimes, entire manifests of passengers would be sent out just as they had been captured, unharmed. While some resistance was offered, Wei Wuyin had higher-leveled figures overwhelm the cultivators onboard, or directly disabled their combat formations and let his crew deal with them.

Wei Wuyin never personally arrived on scene, only sending out strands of astral force at times. Still, his swift and powerful means left a godly reputation in the mental image of the crew. They were also startled by his tactics of catch and release, but didn't mind it as they were provided fifth, sixth, or seventh-graded alchemical products as profit or astral stones for currency.

The crew of two million had never been so excited. Since the takeover of leadership, they were given far better cultivation conditions. While the pay remained mostly the same, they weren't just raw, volatile materials or essence stones they needed weeks, months, or years to refine, but easy to refine products.

Roughly two months after the takeover, voidships were sent to a nearby planet, docking there, and acquiring materials and formation designs. Many of the damaged areas of the Vanishing Colossus were being rapidly repaired by the Architects onboard, and the Forgers repaired some of the shady areas barely held together by effort and continuous inspections.

The stress that most suffered from having to heavily compensate for certain lacking areas was abolished, replaced by ease.

Wei Wuyin was astonished by the sheer size of the Soul-Rising Domain, finding it quite expansive. Trueborn, the Evil Organization, had transported them from Blueglow to near the center of the Soul-Rising Domain in a single month's time. But traveling back took a long time. While the Vanishing Colossus was a better vehicle in comparison to his archaic Voidship overall, its maximum speed was roughly the same.

With detours, delays, and the inability to push it at full speed without the cost being absolutely outrageous, he expected reaching Blueglow would take three, maybe four years. He was awed that cultivators had to continuously travel such long distances and how much of their time was spent traveling across planets, lunar satellites, or domains.

While Void Gates existed, Wei Wuyin had learned that their price of usage made them an absolute luxury due to the stability and strength of space from the Mystic Radiance Belts infusion. The vast, vast majority of cultivators only used them for short-range transportation, and all long-range transportation was performed by Voidships. Notably, the transport-designed Voidships that they seized and stripped for parts.

If Tuo Bihan was here, he could tell Wei Wuyin about the exquisitely designed Void Gates with vastly reduced cost to operate, being efficient for even Qi Condensation Realm cultivators to travel to and fro World Realms, including the Prosperous Moons. He would surely be amazed.

Wei Wuyin was going to allow time to be consumed in such a manner, spending some time to let his plans settle, but he realized from the glowing mark of his 'War' character on his palm that his time wasn't infinite—there was a deadline approaching. The Heavenly Daos also gave him a bout of stinging influence to urge him to urgently head to Blueglow.

Clearly, while it had calculated his slow arrival, whatever opportunistic fortune from his Karmic Luck Deduction was near its initiation. If he didn't make it there immediately, he wouldn't have a chance again.

That being said, he was in the middle of a crucial decision just prior to receiving the burst of influential urgings from the Heavenly Daos. He sat in his captain's quarters, sealed from all his crew, Bai Lin nestled behind him acting as the softest cushion, as he observed four small vials.

They were transparent, and the ounce of liquid within strangely had faint, vague mystic runes swimming within, but they were shattered and incomplete, unlike the twenty-four in his World Seas. Still, if pieced together, they matched perfectly to his own.

He had expended the last of his Terra-Mystic Ore to concoct these four elixirs, coming to the realization that the six Seeds of Mystic Intent might've improved his cultivation base and innate energies, but not his ability to concoct transcendent products by himself. That said, his ability to concoct peak-quality products elevated. Even if casually performed, he hadn't made a single low-quality product of any grade, completely unlike his normal self.

Wei Wuyin even felt that he had lost the ability to make low-quality products unless he deliberately decided to lower the quality. If he acted with even an iota of seriousness, high-quality was its end result.

"Transcendent Soul Deity Invoker Elixir…" This was the high-tier, ninth-grade elixir that had heaven-defying properties, allowing a cultivator to exceed the natural limits of their Soul Idol. By consuming the remaining amount of unrefined Manifested Spirit Energy and Soul Pulse Ring Fragments of a Nine-Ringed Soul Idol, a tenth Soul Ring could be formed.

Wei Wuyin had used this product on all four of his Astral Souls, but since doing so, he came to the bleak discovery that the combination of his Astral Souls outrageous absorption of Manifested Spirit Energy from the manipulation of their Soul Idol Astral Tribulation and the tenth ring itself, he couldn't manifest a single one of his Soul Idols without an unbearable consumption of his spiritual energies.

Those at the Soul Idol, Spatial Resonance, Light Reflection, and Gravity Emission Phases were only at the strongest state after manifesting their Soul Idol, much like how Realmlords, Timelords, and Starlords were only in their strongest state after manifesting their Worldly Domains.

While these problems had lessened as he perfected his foundation, elevating to the next stage of his cultivation, he was never presented with a need to exert his strongest force. However, this 'War' character etched on his palm gave him the feeling that his current cultivation base wasn't enough to maximize this opportunity.

It was a feeling, back not by the observation of Worldly Trend or Influential Stings, just a feeling.

However, he was hesitant. Because Soul Deity Invoker Elixir used the remaining Manifested Spirit Energy and Soul Pulse Ring Fragments to produce a stronger tenth-ring. What would a transcendent-quality version do? Would it even do anything at all? Could his consumption of the lesser version nullify the effects of this one?

The uncertainty was so high his mind was unable to process all of it.

Once again, his Astral Souls weren't in a hurry to consume a ninth-grade product without some apprehension. Even Ori, the typical reckless of the four, was silent and anxious. According to them, all the manifested spirit energy within them had been drained and refined into the tenth-ring. There should be nothing left.

This was also why he felt a huge burden on his spiritual energies whenever he invoked his Soul Idol, because the tenth ring was 'too powerful'.

Wei Wuyin's fingers tapped nervously on his leg, his eyes affixed to these small bottles. His entire mind was telling him these products were going to be a trigger for something immense…

Wei Wuyin was so incredibly tense that he hoped for it to do nothing instead. How embarrassing would it be to die by your own alchemical product? He wouldn't even have the face to arrive in Hell to be obliterated, cleansed, or whatever happens to Inheritors of Sin after their deaths.

Bai Lin placed her head in his lap, just staring at him innocently. Her eyes were urging him to do it. After all, she knew Wei Wuyin. Since he had decided to concoct it, there was no way he'd back down even if he was as afraid as a fat pig before ravenous wolves.

And she was right.

Wei Wuyin deeply inhaled and exhaled out all his tension. Without any hesitation, he brought the four vials together and imbibed them all. His Astral Souls moved to split them into equal portions.

After they absorbed the elixir, they stayed perfectly still and ready to combat any ill-effects.

However…

Nothing happened.

"...Hm?" Wei Wuyin had his eyes shut, focused thoroughly on his internal body, and fully prepared to use whatever means he could to avoid a disastrous outcome.

After a few minutes, still nothing.

"...Did it just not work?" After a few more minutes, nothing happened. But the tension within Wei Wuyin's heart was mounting with every passing moment. He didn't know where it originated from, but his mind felt a sensation of crisis so deadly that his hair stood, yet it came from every direction.

"Where is i-" All five of them, Kratos, Ori, King, Eden, and Wei Wuyin simultaneously asked after the feeling reached an unprecedented high. Yet before they could finish, they were interrupted by the trembling and rumbling of Vanishing Colossus!

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!! RUMBLE!!!

Wei Wuyin's pupils constricted to needlepoints, even Bai Lin's golden pupils blazed with flames. Without any hesitation, Wei Wuyin shifted through fixed space, a tenth-ring Spatial Resonance ability—Spatial Shift, and arrived outside the ship.

When he did, his eyes instantly reflected nothing but a cyan light.

"Holy fu-!"