Paragon of Sin

"I…"

Wide-eyed, the brown-eyed Ever-Knight felt his heart clenched by the great hand of death. It was heavy, unrelenting, and cold. So very cold. 

There was regret circulating within his mind with frenzied energy. His eyes bulged as the halberd-transformed Myriad Monarch Canon entered his torso, piercing through the other side with disturbing ease, and with all his remaining strength, the Ever-Knight directed his hands to grasp its handle. 

Tens of thousands of dark-red Mystic Runes erupted from his body, like a heated volcano at its climax, spewing out copious amounts of mystic power without any restrictions whatsoever. 

When he stared at the pummel of the halberd, tracing the pole that pierced chest, and the fragmented armor that had shattered upon contact, his eyes reddened and his pupils expanded to their utmost limits. A fierce, unwilling, and unyielding will surged from those eyes of his. 

"GAHHHH!!!" The Ever-Knight violently roared as dark-red blood gushed out of his openings, from his helmet, gloves, and greaves. It almost seemed as if his entire body was on the verge of exploding. Unfortunately, his efforts bore little fruit as the halberd carried him further and further away. He became the tip of a comet with a starry light tail.

"...!" There wasn't a single involved party that wasn't startled by this development, finding themselves in disbelief as they momentarily paused in surprise. They were all caught off-guard, certain that Wu Yu was aiming for the Mortal Sovereign Alchemists after his initial fake. However, it had been a layered fake! 

It was a brief pause though, but it was enough for Wu Yu to follow-through. He executed a sequence of three hand-seals. At the end of which, his mystic power seemed to rapidly diminish within his body, causing his Mystic Aura to weaken to a considerable degree. 

Without warning, the halberd began to emanate starry light without end, reaching tens of miles and inuduating the Ever-Knight in its gorgeous radiance. However, the Ever-Knight was unable to appreciate its beauty as the Imperial Heaven Aura infecting his body began to be fueled by a tremendous amount of power, releasing fierce Imperial Pressure.

The Ever-Knight squirmed violently. With all their strength, they tried to pull out the halberd as if it was their life mission. The last mission they may ever receive. Unfortunately…

They failed.

There was no thunderous boom, strange crunching sound, or wave of energy. The Ever-Knight's openings flooded with gushing blood and gooey flesh. Their armor was perfectly intact, but the insides were a mess, filled with mangled flesh and bones, and even their Mystic Soul was shattered without mercy. 

Dead.

Wu Yu's expression grew ashen. He had exhausted vast quantities of his mystic power to fuel and detonate the latent Imperial Heaven Aura within the brown-eyed Ever-Knight. 

"NOOO!" The tangerine-eyed Ever-Knight was stunned to the extreme, a wave of anguish and horror echoed out of their voice. The emotion was raw, even greater than Wu Yu's previous emotional outrage. It was genuine. 

The remaining Ever-Knight didn't hesitate to unleash their greatest strength, shooting towards Wu Yu with violent, murderous eyes. 

Wu Yu grimaced, turning towards the enraged Ever-Knight, and feeling a heavy pressure descend upon him. His eyes contracted slightly as he realized the Ever-Knight was igniting their Mystic Soul! Without hesitation, he reached out and pulled back his hand. The halberd jolted out of the mangled body,causing pieces of armor to scatter, and shot towards Wu Yu with extreme speed.

Wu Yu didn't retreat. He held steady as the halberd reached him before the Ever-Knight could, and then he spun it around in full circle overhead, causing the mystic runes around him to stir fiercely as mystic power was unleashed. 

The Ever-Knight was seemingly ready to fight to the death, but then he halted without warning. Those vicious eyes reflected hatred, but that had been replaced with concern, and then shot backwards to the Ever-Knight's mangled body and intact armor. 

Wu Yu was startled for a moment, and then his eyes widened with disbelief. The Ever-Knight grabbed the floating armor, and seemingly pulled out a shattered Mystic Soul. It was dark-red, burning the surrounding space, and attached to it was a faint cyan-colored silhouette. 

As someone who lived for thousands of years in this strange form, a Soul attached to his Mystic Soul, Wu Yu immediately realized what had happened. But shockingly, when the tangerine-eyed Ever-Knight took out the Mystic Soul, they were using their ignited Mystic Soul to bring it into themselves.

Wu Yu immediately realized that he was baited to bring back the halberd, to prevent him from ensuring the death of the brown-eyed Ever-Knight from afar. Furthermore, the tangerine-eyed Ever-Knight seemingly ignited their Mystic Soul to use some strange spell to bring it into their dantian. 

Curiosity abounded, the tangerine-eyed Ever-Knight stared at Wu Yu with a frightening gaze. "I guess killing an Ascended being is harder than I thought," Wu Yu quietly remarked as he realized that he'd never killed an Ascended being before. They weren't considered beyond Mortal Limits for no reason. 

He scoffed in vexation as he turned his attention elsewhere, not wanting to fight an Earthly Saint that had ignited their Mystic Soul in his current state. The Voidship with the Mortal Sovereign Alchemists were defended by four Earthly Saints. He wondered if he should've followed through with that plan, but he eradicated the thought. He had exhausted a large portion of his power to kill that Ever-Knight, and he barely had much in his tank. 

He hadn't consolidated his cultivation base nor replenished himself with newly refined mystic energies of the Earthly Saint level, so his power was severely limited. Furthermore, he had consecutively ascended from the Soul of Mysticism Phase to the Earthly Saint Phase, so the disparity was even greater than other newly ascended Earthly Saints. If not for his Awakened Mystic Intent at the eight mystic runes level, he wouldn't have lasted this long.

While cultivators typically had tremendous quantities of energies within them, this was relative to the activity itself. When fighting two Earthly Saints, each attack or defense was at minimum an entire percentage of his reserves. And that was the minimum. 

'This is all too fast,' Wu Yu thought to himself. While it wasn't exactly unexpected that the Everlore Association would make an attempt on Wei Wuyin's life if given the opportunity, he was startled by how all this unfolded. He felt at fault. 

Regardless of the outcome, Wei Wuyin and the Everlore Association's relationship was now indefinitely antagonistic. It was far too early for this. Wei Wuyin was still a mortal with strong ties to other cultivators in the starfield, and if the Everlore Association considered Wei Wuyin or himself as a threat…

While his priority should be to escape, Wu Yu couldn't help but realize how much turmoil was generated by his ascension. He had wanted to weaken the Everlore Association by killing an Earthly Saint of theirs, but the feat of genuinely killing an Ascended being was more difficult than he originally thought. He had to ensure their Mystic Soul was thoroughly eviscerated, not like normal mortals who died if beheaded or crushed. 

Wu Yu heaved a sigh. 

He looked towards the tangerine-eyed Ever-Knight and calmed his breathing, stabilizing his Mystic Aura, and glanced towards the Voidship still actively fleeing while guarded by four Earthly Saints. He pointed towards the devastated Rainbow Sky that was floating out of orbit, bits and pieces of it broke off at times. It was a depressing, lifeless sight.

"My Young Lord has ordered me to give that Earthly Knight punishment for his crimes, but spared his life so that the Everlore Domain can seek answers. He has a question for him, for all of you…" Wu Yu paused, moving his gaze over the Earthly Saints and the spectators that were watching from afar. They were all shocked by Wu Yu's calm after his ferocious killing attempt and layered fake. A few even thought it was merely another distraction.

Wu Yu continued without caring about their thoughts in the calmest voice imaginable: "Why deliberately kill billions under the guise of an accidental discharge? You owe your entire Domain an explanation. This is his question and his statement." 

"..." 

"..."

"...What?!" The spectators reeled at Wu Yu's words. That was clearly an unintended action from an explosive fight between Earthly Saints! Why would the Everlore Association destroy Rainbow Sky deliberately? That was ludicrous!

"..." The tangerine-eyed Ever-Knight gave Wu Yu a heavy gaze.

Wu Yu gripped his halberd, bringing to it his side, and looked at the far-off distance. "I just reached the Earthly Saint level, and I could even tell that it was deliberate. I can't imagine you intended to fool the other Earthly Saints, even a Soul of Mysticism would notice the strangeness of an Earthly Saint of thousands of years of experience losing control of their attack while at full strength. I don't know whether you consider them fools or you just didn't care if they noticed."

Wu Yu hefted his halberd, a wisp of sharp light emanated from his eyes. Then, without hesitation, he spontaneously threw his halberd towards a direction. It zoomed at exceptional speeds, causing several cultivators to gasp in shock.

It traveled for thirty-thousand miles in a brief moment, and then abruptly stopped. At the very tip of the halberd's blade was a pale-faced female with an icy aura. She was a Soul of Mysticism Cultivator! One of the numerous spectators observing the fight! 

She couldn't move as cold sweat slowly dripped from her forehead. The tip of the halberd only needed to move just an inch and her forehead would've been pierced. She heavily gulped, fearful for her life.

"See. I can control my attack with such ease, how could an experienced Earthly Saint not do the same?" Wu Yu grabbed towards the halberd and the halberd returned in a long streak. No one dared to intercept it, especially since it had almost killed an Earthly Saint. 

When the halberd returned to his hand, his Mystic Aura flared slightly. "I'll let you explain that one, and why the Everlore Association would allow their Ever-Knight to destroy an entire planet, including all the lives. That said, I'll now say what my Young Lord wanted to announce to the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region: 

"I, Wei Wuyin, as a Mortal Sovereign Alchemist, will be hosting an Alchemic Gathering for all eligible alchemists! It'll be set for ten years from today! There, an All-Alchemic Clash Royale will be hosted. To any who can best me, they'll claim the Neo-Dawn Eclipse Pill's Concoction Method as their prize! More details will be released in the future."

Those words were meant to offer Wu Yu a legitimate reason to be here and to act as a messenger. It was Wei Wuyin's way of serving as a justified reason for his presence here, and to offer a way to shift attention away from Wu Yu and onto himself. Unfortunately, the Ever-Knight had attacked and a conflict still ensued.

After saying this, Wu Yu glanced at the remaining Ever-Knight: "This could've been avoided had you let me speak, not attacked without reason to justify destroying your own planet. After all, I'm just the messenger." Wu Yu didn't linger. He shot off into the distance taking advantage of their shock. 

This caused everyone to be stunned. The Ever-Knight's eyes flickered with strange light. The doubt in his own eyes was clear, but he didn't just let this be. He chased after Wu Yu. Regardless of what, Wu Yu was a foreign Earthly Saint and his existence led to the destruction of Rainbow Sky. 

However, the indifference in which Wu Yu spoke and the faint reveal of evidence caused thoughts to flare within the minds of all those watching. Especially the faint mockery in his tone as he insinuated that the Everlore Association considered them idiots. This exacerbated the issue when they realized they even thought it was an accident.

No one liked to be fooled, and even worse, no one liked when they were successfully fooled and then it was revealed later!

Did the Everlore Association truly destroy their own planet? Killed billions? For…what?!