Paragon of Sin

Lin Xianxei's eyes furrowed slightly, and then her heart shook as realization dawned on her. With frightening swiftness, her eyes widened. She began to move! But, just as she took her first step, an unfathomable, irresistible power descended on her body and restrained her. A voice echoed in their area, "Due to special circumstances, no allied support will be allowed in this challenge. Please refrain from disturbing the scene." 

Lin Xianxei's eyes shook violently as she tried to muster a little bit of resistance. She wanted to shout out to Lin Ming: "It's a trap!" But her voice was suppressed, her spiritual fluctuations would be blocked to prevent outside interferences during the challenge, and she was unable to fly towards Lin Ming; she couldn't give him any alerting expressions. 

Why would they give you a choice?!

Lin Xianxian realized this peculiarity and caught on after seeing an unfathomable force envelop her daughter. Alas, she wasn't able to do anything.

Lin Ming frowned. He was pondering which he should choose. It was clear that the Ever-Domain Pill was weaker, and likely easier to overcome, while the Neo-Dawn Eclipse Pill will certainly be more difficult. It would be best to choose the former. However, doing so equated to admitting to his inferiority to Wei Wuyin.

Lin Ming couldn't help but recall the Grand Seer's words from all those years ago. It was like a haunting ghost's claw, tugging against his heart with an icy touch. If he took a step back here, wouldn't that mean he would agree that he was only worthy of the lowest level of Chosen? 

As he thought more on it, his aura began to transform, emitting a valiant air befitting the fearless. With bright grey eyes, he refused to back down and admit his inferiority to Wei Wuyin, not even his pills. For a moment, to the audience, he felt like a peerless hero willing to face titans.

"I choose the Neo-Dawn Eclipse Pill." 

"So be it."

"Archaic Chosen of True Element Sect Age: 46. Cultivation Realm: Astral Core. Cultivation Stage: Sixth. Entity Level: Mortal, Lesser Starlord."

"Do you wish to continue?"

-----

In the Main Hall, Wu Baozhai and Xue Yifei were watching a massive, multi-view spiritual projection that revealed every detail of what was happening in the other area. They sat on golden mats, wisps of multicolored energy seeped into their pores without them actively doing so. 

They saw Lin Ming accept the newly revised version, and the two looked at each other. This might seem like a play on Lin Ming, but it was a targeted move against Wei Wuyin and the Ninestar Starfield! Lin Ming simply got caught in the crossfire. Their expressions gradually grew solemn.

-----

Wei Wuyin sat within his alchemy lab with a feverish expression, his silver eyes inspecting the brewing cauldron with eight alchemic stars in each eye! After several minutes, a burst of alchemic power surged, attempting to manifest an illusory phenomenon of the Alchemic Dao. 

In the end, it was suppressed by a powerful formation. Wei Wuyin heaved a heavy sigh of relief, reaching in and pulling out a seven-colored pill that heavily resembled a Solar Star.

A Ninth-Grade Pill! 

"Finally, I did it." After over a month, Wei Wuyin finally succeeded in reaching his goal. The Echoing Stars of the Vastness Pill here wasn't just lacking impurities, Wei Wuyin succeeded in concocting that on day four, nor was it just peak-quality, Wei Wuyin achieved that on day nine, but had been changed to grant it an Infinite Variations form! 

That took nearly a month to complete, finally using the conjoined power of a modified Solar Star by the Eye of Creation, and the Infinite Dao Soul Ash introduced into the concoction method. The change to the method was a truly difficult step, needing a different ratio of certain materials to accommodate. Regardless, he had succeeded!

The Echoing Stars of the Alchemic Vastness Pill. And it was at the peak-grade!

Without being able to revel in his success, an illusory root directly manifested from his glabella and brought it into his Sea of Consciousness. Then, Eden began to ravenously refine the pill. It was at least four times more effective to an Alchemic Soul's Domain Seed than a normal soul. Due to its alchemical properties, it was harmless and could be devoured directly in the Sea of Consciousness without externalizing.

Wei Wuyin sighed a little. 

He inspected his Domain Seeds with rapt focus, a glint of burning excitement in his eyes. After an entire month, his Domains had consumed dozens of peak-quality Echoing Stars of the Vastness Pills. They still refused to refine anything less than peak-quality, causing him to have an excess of these pills at low and high qualities. 

The growth of his Domain Seeds was monumental, truly justifying the pill's imaginary tier as 'pinnacle-tier'. The Domain Seed was the eventual 'core' of a Star Core, so it greatly benefited from its effects. Furthermore, the primary effect of the pill elevated all his energy sources, including the four essential and light, spatial, and gravitational forces, thereby causing his foundation to thoroughly rise. 

Wei Wuyin began to meditate after his success, feeling the strange power flowing through his meridians, Sea of Consciousness, and Dantian. It was loose, free, and without a tether. It was time energy! Wei Wuyin realized that if it wasn't for his True Void Dragon Bloodline, the time energy might ravage his body without the necessary cultivation base.

He realized he couldn't give this to those beneath the Temporal Eye Phase, the eighth stage of the Astral Core Realm, lest they suffer consequences from the uncontrolled time energy that might rapidly siphon their lifeforce or slow down their circulation of energies.

"I'll just make an accompanying paste that can expel or extract the time energy from their bodies during refinement. Refine the pill; soak one's body; cultivate without worry," Wei Wuyin decided in his heart, not allowing conventional cultivation limitations to halt his ability to rapidly develop his forces. He hadn't noticed but he was showing the true signs of an Alchemist, deciding to devise specific products to overcome specific obstacles. Almost all of his created products were due to sudden inspiration. 

Wei Wuyin stood and stretched his tense bones. While his concoction speed was heaven-defying, it still drained a lot out of him to do so. It was just fortunate that his mental and physical energies were absurd. The slight movement of his body caused space to distort.

"Hm?" Wei Wuyin finally noticed the drastic changes in his physical body. The peak-quality effect of the Echoing Stars of the Vastness Pill was purifying the body and refining it with the unique energy within a Solar Star's core. This heavily resembled a Star Core, so it greatly benefited one's attempt to manifest or elevate Astral Physiques. 

Wei Wuyin was at the Realm World Phase, so he was two stages from using starforce to refine his body, manifesting his Astral Physique, yet the pill had greatly strengthened his body's foundations. This wasn't related to physical energies, but the constitution of each cell, from muscle to blood, to bone, to brain cells. All of them had increased.

Wei Wuyin's facial expression grew odd. He realized the capacity of energy that his Sea of Consciousness and body could contain had roughly doubled. This was extremely excessive considering his previous limitations, and it was still growing.

"The limits of my foundation are increasing again…" Wei Wuyin softly muttered. He could only pray that by the time he reached his limits, he wasn't rendered blind again. How irritating would that be? 

After another thorough inspection of his entirety, Wei Wuyin nodded approvingly. His Celestial Eyes held steady and firm despite the secondary effect of the pill increasing his spiritual strength, and there were no ill-adverse changes to his increased quantities of energies. 

Suddenly, Wei Wuyin's saint ring glowed with the spiritual light of a transmitted message. He inspected it, and as he did, his expression grew darker by the second. 

"Bai Lin."

Kree?

Wei Wuyin vanished. He appeared in another room, his eyes focusing on Bai Lin who was lazing around foolishly. Her golden eyes instantly honed onto Wei Wuyin's figure with a happy expression. While she hadn't grown an inch, a limitation of her racial features, her aura was completely different. She had finished refining the feather.

"We got a summit to go to," Wei Wuyin grinned.

"Finally!" Bai Lin felt exultant. 

-----

Back at the stage, Lin Ming was in the middle of facing this new challenge, his heroic air faded slightly as his expression grew uglier by the second. 

The entity-level was Lesser Starlord? What type of bullshit was this?! Yet he chose this himself, so how could he back down? But as he was about to bravely, or foolishly, accept, a strong feeling of deadly crisis emerged in his mind, as if a guardian angel was whispering in his ear that something was amiss. 

It was clear, causing his heart to shake violently. It was as if the voice was telling him that agreeing meant certain death! He clenched his fists tightly, defiance burning wildly in his eyes. 

San Luoyang's voice resounded yet again, "Do you wish to continue?"

Special courtesy for a special circumstance!