Paragon of Sin

The dreaded day finally arrived in the Main Hall, accompanied by tears of unwillingness and conflicted gratitude. The blessings of the Everlore Association ended. With the arrival of the sixth month, the Astral Mist dissipated, the Astralis Mats dissolved, and the platforms returned to a plain environment. 

Normally, this would've indicated the ending of the Preliminary Discussions, the ejection of those who remained, confirmation for those who passed, and the solidification of effort, talent, and risk that gave those astonishing, unforgettable Chosen their voice to impact the next era. However, the invitation of everyone won by Wei Wuyin changed the direction of the Saint Cyclic Renewal Summit, which later fueled the Saint Cyclic Alchemic Clash. 

No longer indulging in the fruitful blessings of the Everlore Association, those present were relegated to genuine spectators awaiting the final decision. 

"At least we still get good food," a chubby youth, an inner disciple of the Boundless Martial Sect, jokingly said as he chomped down on a few scrumptious grapes. The Everlore Association might have taken away its fortune, but it provided sufficient food for everyone in a daily manner. Cloaked figures were coming at least three times a day, distributing recently cooked dishes, freshly prepared fruits, and purified water. 

While ambient essence can be converted into energies capable of sustaining minimal bodily functions after a certain stage of cultivation, it was easier to substitute food. The accumulated waste can be expelled through internal refinement and breathing. This type of expulsion resulted in turbid breaths that were swiftly refined by the formations inside the Main Hall. 

"I didn't think this was how the summit would go," a handsome young man beside the chubby youth, called Shu Yu, or Senior Brother Shu, commented lightly. It wasn't just him who hadn't expected the summit's Preliminary Discussions to transform into an Alchemic Clash with Mortal Sovereign Alchemists facing each other to determine their abilities to nurture. 

To be honest, Shu Yu didn't fully understand the logic behind this decision. He couldn't wrap his head around why the true top-tier elites of the starfield, those Earthly Saints, were willing to step down and agree to these conditions. He fully believed genuine power should decide the era's future. In his eyes, wouldn't this type of challenge only benefit those with deep wallets and access? 

His confusion made him feel ignorant as if he was missing the bigger picture, and this converted into anger. He heaved a heavy breath and, from the corner of his eye, found an outlet. "Junior Sister Ai, your 'boyfriend' is right there. Shouldn't you go say hi?" The mocking within his tone was extremely thick. 

Junior Sister Ai, or Ai Juling, cut a beautiful figure with her bronze skin, boho ponytail, slender figure, and elven ears. However, her eyes carried no animosity or anger after Shu Yu's mocking but a brilliant smile that was impossible to miss. The joy from her eyes was as evident as the stars in the night sky and equally as enchanting.

This caused Shu Yu's expression to darken. The chubby youth, He Xiang, crunched on some more grapes before saying, "I guess we're not going to be precious guests." 

However, Ai Juling's mood was unable to be brought down. She excitedly twisted the spatial ring on her finger as he stared at the highest platform where Wei Wuyin was. While Wei Wuyin hadn't descended to greet her since his appearance, they've been having spiritual transmissions without end. Her heart was deeply satisfied, especially when she found various products appearing within her spatial ring, personally concocted by Wei Wuyin.

She understood that he was busy, and if he ignored her at this moment, while saddened, she would understand. But he kept in touch throughout, never missing a day to send a message or twelve. How could she care about these mocking comments?

Wen Yawen and Yi Yun completed their group of five inner disciples originating from the Boundless Martial Sect. The former gave Ai Juling a slightly pitying look as if saddened by her delusions, while Yi Yun was looking at her spatial ring. Since they arrived in the Main Hall, he felt subtle fluctuations coming from it. Could Wei Wuyin be communicating with her? 

Was he really her boyfriend? 

Ai Juling wasn't the only one that had been in communication with Wei Wuyin. Scattered throughout the Main Hall, those who had a relationship with Wei Wuyin and still possessed his spatial rings were met with endless surprise as alchemical resources and spiritual transmissions were rampant. None of them was neglected. 

From the violet-skinned, golden-eyed giantess hidden beneath a cloak to the scarlet-eyed, long-haired wolf watching its prey—none were forgotten. 

This was especially so for those amongst the Valkyrie and Ascendants. Even the three Venerable of the United Source Starfield, Wei Wuyin's first trio of Ascended subordinates in the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region, were met with bountiful gifts of high-end cultivation resources. It was simply unfortunate that those three could only receive carefully stored and sealed raw mystic-graded materials for their cultivation. 

In these few months, they were all experiencing steady and rapid growth. Moreover, they had enough alchemical products and resources to easily last them the entire forty-two months of the clash. At the end, it was uncertain the limits they'd reach.

Hong Chunhua was cultivating alongside the other Ascendants. They were all extremely familiar with cultivating in this manner, given alchemical products suited for their level and expertly prepared for their specific cultivation base. Like trained soldiers, they diligently cultivated without a word, the atmosphere there filled with the utmost seriousness. 

After refining a few Primary Light enhancing products in these last few months, as specifically detailed by Wei Wuyin's instructions, which included the never-before-seen Neo-Dawn Soul-Sea Elixir that she'd never heard of before or was aware its effect even existed, she brought out a tablet. 

At its header, it read: Dawnbreaker Swordlight Method. 

"High-Earth?" A tingle of excitement surged through her heart, mind, and soul. She could feel that this cultivation method was going to drastically change her life.

-----

Inside the dome of mystic power, Wei Wuyin was ashen-faced with his eyes closed, his breathing labored, and his aura fluctuating erratically. He was seated on the floor, and directly across from him was a seated Du Ling, whose ruddy complexion and strong breathing sharply contrasted to Wei Wuyin's current appearance. 

Luo Ning was standing a few meters away, hunched over the All-Elemental Eclipse Cauldron, with her eyes containing maniacal excitement. "I did it! I did it! I DID IT!" Despite her advanced age and dwindling lifeforce, Luo Ning felt as if she was brimming with life and energy, hollering up and down at her success. 

The three of them were immersed inside a world of Utmost World Purity Mist, sealed within the dome by Wu Yu's mystic power and unable to exceed a certain boundary. Without it, the entire world would be thoroughly shaken to its core by the Utmost Purity Mist emanating from the All-Elemental Eclipse Cauldron. 

Luo Ning brought out a low-tier, seventh-grade Astral Dipper Foundation Pill, but it was at the peak-quality. In her entire life, the number of times she had successfully concocted a seventh-grade peak-quality alchemical product could be counted with one's fingers. While she was an Emperor Alchemist with an Alchemic Astral Soul and a Mystic Star Phase cultivation base, the concept of reaching peak-quality was a matter of skill rather than abilities. 

She rarely failed at concocting products, but the vast, vast majority of these products were low-quality. In fact, Luo Ning had created thousands upon thousands of more Impure-quality products than she had low-quality. If the Alchemic Dao strictly relied on quality of energy and cultivation base, then there would be a lot more Mortal Sovereign Alchemists. 

A lot more!

Wei Wuyin slowly opened his eyes, an exhausted light effusing from his silver eyes. He was mentally drained, an extreme rarity given his mental energy reserves, expansive Sea of Consciousness, and Alchemic Eden Core's size.

Looking at Du Ling in a profound meditative state, ignorant of the world, Wei Wuyin couldn't help but joyfully smile at his success. The transference of knowledge was much more complex than he expected, especially given Du Ling's extremely weak Sea of Consciousness and Mental Energies.

This endeavor allowed him to understand that the more profound the knowledge, the greater the exhaustion of mental energy to the one receiving it. If they were unable to use their mental energy to etch it into their Sea of Consciousness, then the knowledge, insight, and profundities would dissipate with time. It was fortunate that he had been recently afflicted by the Unity of the Alchemic Stars, a perfect demonstration of how knowledge assimilation was highly affected by mental energy, quality, and quantity.

During the Unity of the Alchemic Stars, he had exhausted all his mental energies, yet some Mortal Sovereign Alchemists received less than a thousandth of a percentage of what he gained, etched firmly into his memory. 

"I don't accept this!" Eden cried. Wei Wuyin felt his Sea of Consciousness rumble. This was the first time Eden was completely against something, and it was clear why—its size had shrunk by half! 

These last few months, Wei Wuyin had been segregating portions of his alchemic eden core's quintessential energies and infused them into Luo Ning and Du Ling, greatly expanding their Sea of Consciousness and enriching their mental energies reserves. It was a harrowing experience, and essentially took away large quantities of Eden's hard-earned cultivation. 

This type of imparting was reckless and harmful. It was one of the leading causes of concern for the clash. If Mystic Star instructors sacrificed their cultivation for the Chosen Knights, it would be classified as an extremely unfair advantage. As such, the Mystic Star instructors were forced upon them a Mythical Oath not to commit such an act—Wei Wuyin had taken no such oath. 

He had done this once before with Wen Mingna. At the time, none of his Astral Souls spoke a single word in disapproval. Wen Mingna had saved their lives several times and given them critical information to increase their chances against the Calamities of Hell at the risk of losing her life. Even if Wei Wuyin gave away 99% of his cultivation to her, they wouldn't bat an eye. None of them were ungrateful.

However, Du Ling and Luo Ning were merely experiments, and Eden was the only one to suffer. It argued, fussed, and shouted, but when it came time for extraction, it wholeheartedly allowed it. If Wei Wuyin wasn't on a clock, he would have used the Alchemic Dao's various products to gradually enhance Du Ling and Luo Ning's Sea of Consciousness and Mental Energies, reforging their innate talent. 

Alas, this would take too much time.

Despite fully understanding this, Eden was disgruntled, and rightfully so. With a bitter smile, Wei Wuyin could only accept all its negative feelings. It didn't help that Kratos snickered at Eden's misfortune, calling it the 'little sibling of the bunch. At one point, Wei Wuyin was terrified that Eden would externalize and have a full-on Spirit Brawl with Kratos.

As for Du Ling and Luo Ning, their mental faculties had vastly expanded—especially Du Ling. Despite his cultivation base not experiencing much growth, this Impartation had laid the foundation for his future. He was able to accept Wei Wuyin's infusion of his profound insights into High-level and Apex-level Magma Intents, including the other high-level Elemental Intents, without suffering from mental exhaustion. 

With this mental foundation laid out, Wei Wuyin was free to infuse his memories, experiences, and thoughts towards various cultivation aspects, such as insights into yin-yang, mana, and spirituality. With these, his path through the False Reality and Infused Spirituality Phase would be extremely easy.

Moreover, Du Ling's Spirit of Cultivation would freely be able to generate any of the nine elements as qi, reaching the limits of the Elemental Birth Phase and refining his body using their unique qualities. This was the same refinement experience that Wei Wuyin underwent decades ago, laying a solid foundation.

As for Luo Ning, she had received roughly 50% of his Alchemical Knowledge towards successful concoctions and application of alchemical methods and about 15% of everything he had gained from the Unity of the Alchemic Stars. Her skills in the Alchemic Dao underwent a drastic change. 

For example, with Wei Wuyin's know-how, her concoction time for fifth-grade and lower products almost matched his own! This was largely attributed to her replacing her Predetermined Process with the Freestyle Process that Wei Wuyin was adept in, where an alchemist selected a specific method for each of the seven aspects of the Alchemic Dao. Furthermore, she used her physical and instinctual senses rather than Spiritual Sense to concoct, allowing her to avoid spiritual conflicts during the process.

Unfortunately for Luo Ning, this was all Wei Wuyin was willing to offer for this experiment. It was now all on her to see if she could achieve the Mortal Sovereign Alchemist level with her Alchemic Astral Soul and the experience of 245 Mortal Sovereign Alchemists.