Paragon of Sin

Unmask them!

"Right here?" Faye Liying subconsciously asked. She couldn't resist the urge to look at the Trueborn captives, curiosity blazed in her eyes accompanied by a glow of vigilance. The others also did the same. They were all elites, and they were aware of the nature of Trueborn, especially after seeing the Ravenous Edge Starfield's former Earthly Saint, the Ravenous True King, killed during an operation in her former Domain. 

That strange Earthly Saint of Wei Wuyin had brutally delivered his severed head to her and then left. It was a heart-chilling scene, but it confirmed many, many assumptions. The subsequent fall of the Ravenous Edge Starfield and ongoing division revealed that the second leading Earthly Saint of the starfield, the World Prison True Queen, had likely been a part of that operation.

She was declared as missing but alive, later discovered dead. While Nansi Yuangu's identity remained unconfirmed, his convenient stay in the Golden Life Pavilion was very telling. It wasn't only Wei Wuyin, Wu Yu, or Zhang Ziyi that speculated him as the third. 

This heavily suggested that the Earthly Saints of the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region, from starfield leaders to Aeternal Sky Starfield's leaders, had deeply intertwined relations with Trueborn. It was just unknown whether they were rallied by profits or indoctrinated into the Trueborn's organization itself.

It was clear that even Earthly Saints could be moved by sufficient wealth as long as it didn't infringe on their Mythical Oaths. That said, there was heavy speculation that Trueborn had ways to temporarily suppress Mythical Oaths without outright destroying them. A discounted method of evasion, but this operation could prove this.

For example, if any of the Sky Monarchs or Imperial Monarchs were a part of these masked captives. They were all equally restricted from entering other starfields without permission from the highest authorities. Not even Faye Liying could grant Tian Muyang entry permissions, and only the Soul Saint King or Ennea Hall Alchemic Saint had the rights to evade breaking the Imperial Clan's side of their oaths. 

The tense atmosphere was warranted. This could very well reveal how the Trueborn operated, whether they were as shadowy as others expected, having an independent force of Earthly Saints, or simply possessing strong rallying power towards opportunistic cultivators. 

The five living Earthly Saints here could be anyone. 

Moreover, Sun Li, Han Yuhei, Lady Clearwind, and Faye Liying might be able to discover why Wei Wuyin seemed intent on dealing with Trueborn. 

Ma Zheng glanced at Wei Wuyin, receiving the nod of confirmation. With a sharp breath, he moved towards a masked Earthly Saint whose head was tilted in such a way as if they were staring directly at Wei Wuyin. An unflinching gaze was definitely beneath that mask of theirs. 

Entirely unbothered, Wei Wuyin replied to this death stare with the faintest of smiles. This particular Earthly Saint had the largest Karmic Sin aura. Their journey thus far must be drenched in tragedy, hardship, struggle, blood, and death. 

While the Heavenly Daos' laws weren't strictly righteous, many of their rules were established on a strange, archaic sense of balance and equity. It was a system of law that, at first glance, might be seen as acceptable and just, but delving deeper would discover a heap of issues.

Just the absolution of soldiers that commit atrocities was a law that felt both balanced yet extremely unfair. To pile all their sins committed on a single person, disregarding what they do as long as they acted 'under the orders' of another, felt strangely out-of-place. The clarity of that law was disgustingly vague as well. 

Considering how Karmic Sin distribution functioned, Wei Wuyin felt as if the Heavenly Daos' laws were established as a way to prevent overflooding of sinners in Hell, especially that law. Who knew if that was the case or not. 

Ma Zheng reached out to grasp the mask. The mask itself was without any symbols, full-faced, unlike the half-masked, grey-colored, with a three-dimensional image of a hand holding a crimson sphere. These masks were blank, without human features, without eyes, only the shape of their faces were somewhat clear. Still, it was difficult to discern gender.

When Ma Zheng touched the mask, his hand enveloped in a thin layer of mystic power, Wei Wuyin's Sea of Consciousness throbbed fiercely.

"Stop." A voice erupted throughout Wei Wuyin's mind. He felt a familiar siphoning of his mental energies. After reaching the Realm World Phase, becoming a genuine Realmlord, his innate energies had all undergone drastic changes in quality and limits of quantity. 

Wei Wuyin instantly projected himself into his Sea of Consciousness, observing the Golden Egg of the Heavenly War Spirit sitting prettily at the base of Eden's vast tree trunk. It was enveloped by roots of Eden, tightly wound against it, pumping richly refined mental energies into it. 

"Stop?" Wei Wuyin asked, confused but wary. Still, in the real world, he verbally called out to Ma Zheng: "Don't." 

His words prompted the others to give him a look, confused by the sudden change of direction. Ma Zheng, however, withdrew his hands swiftly and without question. He furrowed his brows as he looked at the masked figure. For some reason, he felt as if the face beneath the mask was grinning. 

The Heavenly War Spirit within his Sea of Consciousness has always been a mystery, an object or existence of unknown purpose. The only thing he knew was that it could communicate, had the voice of a little girl, and consumed vast amounts of his mental energies to talk. It cost 5,000,000 War Souls, so Wei Wuyin knew it was far from an ordinary existence. 

The Heavenly War Spirit's egg sucked in another burst of mental energies. While he felt a little disorientated, his mental energy was vastly superior to what it was before. He didn't suffer a headache this time. 

"Kill her." 

Those two words were blandly spoken. There was a lack of emotions, chilling and distant, from that voice. The energy and liveliness from before vanished, and while the voice sounded the same, that of a little girl, it could easily be mistaken as someone else's. 

"Her? Why?" Wei Wuyin asked.

"..." Wei Wuyin stared at the Heavenly War Spirit's egg for a long time in his Sea of Consciousness. After that long period had passed with no further elaboration, Wei Wuyin felt that the Heavenly War Spirit had become more unfathomable. 

Dissipating his mental incarnation, Wei Wuyin felt the gazes of all the Earthly Saints fixated on him. It was a strange event where all these Ascended beings were awaiting word from a measly mortal, but none of them felt this was odd in the slightest. 

Wei Wuyin, with his Worldly Domain unfurled, flew off Bai Lin, approaching Ma Zheng and the captives. The eyes drawn to his movements were intense. When he arrived beside Ma Zheng, the aged merchant gave Wei Wuyin a frowned look. 

He didn't know if what was felt towards this captive was genuine or not. However, whether they were smiling or not would be discovered once unmasked, right? 

The others were of similar thought: Wei Wuyin wanted to unmask them himself. They hoped that they could get a clue about why Wei Wuyin had acted against Trueborn so viciously, ambushing them and capturing their Earthly Saints. 

However, none of them expected what happened next!

Wei Wuyin arrived before the Earthly Saint, a mere few feet of distance, and his silver eyes inspected the mask with an indifferent calmness that was bereft of emotions. Suddenly, he brought out his Essence of War saber, the quasi Mystic-World grade saber! 

"..." The Earthly Saints from every side all watched. 

Watched it as it was thrusted! 

Without the slightest hesitation or delay, Wei Wuyin plunged his saber into the masked figure's dantian. The sheer degree of raw strength he had to exert to penetrate an Ascended's physique was excessive, far beyond Mortal Limits, yet he achieved it! 

The saber's quality didn't hurt. 

"Urgh!" A spurt of shock and colorful blood escaped the masked Earthly Saint's mouth, leaking at the bottom of the mask. 

Wei Wuyin's silver eyes were utterly emotionless as he plunged it deeper, touching the sealed Mystic Soul of the Earthly Saint. Their body instantly began to tremble and resist, wanting to break free sensing the hectic danger! Their Mystic Soul howled, yet the seal was too strong to break free in this short period of time. 

The saber's tip touched the Mystic Soul, then proceeded to stab into it mercilessly. It squirmed and squealed in defiance to no avail. 

Wei Wuyin twisted it.

Suddenly, a strange power from his Sea of Consciousness surged through Eden and into his meridians, coming through the saber, and entering the Mystic Soul. Wei Wuyin felt it course through him, into the saber, and then flow into the Mystic Soul.

Then, it went silent.

There were no howls of defiance. There was no pained scream or curses leaving the masked Earthly Saint's mouth. It was surprisingly quick as their body became instantly lifeless, flopping to the side. 

Wei Wuyin's heart quivered. Others might not be able to sense it clearly due to the concealments in place, but through his varied senses, from his Celestial Eyes and Eden's mental emission senses, he felt the Earthly Saint's entirely be siphoned instantly.

Their lifeforce, their Sea of Consciousness, even their Mystic Soul's innate energies, all of it was siphoned as if gulped by a gluttonous mouth. This was all due to that strange flow of power. 

Wei Wuyin removed his saber after killing the Earthly Saint. Suddenly, as if the concealments were no longer attached to a life, it slowly fell off. The mask that seemed adhered to their skin fell and robes that hid everything loosened. Suddenly, the once androgynous figure became a feminine. Beneath the robes, one with a voluptuous set of breasts, long, slim legs, and long dark hair was revealed.

The hearts and minds of everyone present was violently pounding with ferocious shock! What…the hell just happened?!

Wei Wuyin took a step back, once again projecting himself into his Sea of Consciousness. His eyes were focused on the Heavenly War Spirit's egg. At this moment, there was a thin halo that was very reminiscent of a Mystic Radiance Belt above its head, sprinkling down motes of light. The color of such was beyond description for his mortal senses. Those motes of light were absorbed into the egg.

"..." Wei Wuyin furrowed his brows.

"Prisoners of War are so tasty!" The little girl's voice resounded again, this time lively as it once was. "Why?" It asked.

Wei Wuyin's frown deepened, "Because I wanted to." His answer was simple yet honest. He could've ignored the Heavenly War Spirit's words or continued questioning it, but he didn't. Why? Because the Earthly Saint was marked for death! Their identity didn't matter. Of course, the Heavenly War Spirit likely didn't know this considering the Earthly Saint was referred to as a prisoner of war.

And it didn't. 

To the Heavenly War Spirit, Wei Wuyin's captives were prisoners of his ongoing war against Trueborn. A pervasive thought that was similar to everyone else's. 

"Good answer!" The Heavenly War Spirit exclaimed; shockingly, it didn't use the slightest bit of Wei Wuyin's mental energies to speak. It was somehow absorbing the motes of mystic light to fuel itself. "You're lucky; these Ascended beings all have layers of protections on them. If you tried to remove their masks or robes, a talisman-like mechanism would activate and detonate their Mystic Souls."

"What?!" For the first time since this conversation, Wei Wuyin was shocked. 

"From what I've observed, those other Earthly Saints didn't have it." The Heavenly War Spirit was clearly referring to the three Earthly Saints that attacked Zhan Zheng before. "But they're from the same organization," she added.

Wei Wuyin felt terrified. The detonation of a Mystic Soul was not to be underestimated. It was possible that it could collapse an entire starfield, depending on its size. At the very least, obscene levels of damage would be inflicted. 

"It might even amplify the explosion by a few times. There's some restrictions to it though. The talisman restricts them from detonating their Mystic Souls normally, and igniting their Mystic Souls has a high chance of initiating an automatic detonation. Scary stuff." The Heavenly War Spirit's knowledge was beyond what Wei Wuyin imagined. How did it notice this but no one else had?

"How do you know this?" Wei Wuyin asked. Immediately after asking, he realized how foolish that question was. He instantly speculated, "A talisman like that, huh? Must be a precautionary measure to protect their identities, since Legion Commander Zhan Zheng exposed one of their own before."

The Heavenly War Spirit didn't answer his initial question either, "Smart. War always has its tacticians, an ever-evolving battlefield of improvements and traps."

However, Wei Wuyin couldn't comprehend why these Earthly Saints would agree to such suicidal conditions. If their identities were exposed, it wouldn't be too bad, right? 

Just as he thought this, an antsy Huoyan Liulan rushed towards the deceased Earthly Saint, her hands trembling as she reached out and pulled off the mask! When the mask was fully removed revealing the face behind it, Huoyan Liulan gasped. 

"Auntie Liao?!"