Paragon Of Sin

1841 Chapter 1834: Final Act (8)

Memories flooded Wei Wuyin as the rules and conditions of an All-Alchemic Clash were repeated for the sake of galactic tradition.

During his first All-Alchemic Clash, Wei Wuyin faced Yun Daotian as a representative of the An Clan on the Bloodforge Continent. Those An Clan sisters that he had inadvertently saved had not only joined the Ascendants, but they grew strong enough to be amongst the best and participated in the Chosen King Competition. More importantly, that was the day he first caught sight of Xue Yifei, his heart swayed and its strings pulled with a single glance.

How could he not become nostalgic?

From a little disciple of the Scarlet Solaris Sect abandoned by his sect due to complex love relations that were only plotting to conquer a mere continent, he climbed up inch by inch, conquering planets, realms, and galaxies.

Letʼs not forget—conquering the literal floors of Hell!

Then, he bravely challenged Qingye Ying who sought to steal his talent for herself after a disastrous path. There, he accidentally unearthed the secrets of transcendent products, which would later define his path as the first Mortal Saint Alchemist in universal history, and then as the first to possess the Alchemic Stars of Unparalleled Creation.

And now today.

What ended up being originally planned to be a well-prepared loss had transformed into a blazing desire to taste a challenge, and from the jaws of difficulty, snatch victory.

He wanted to win.
He will win.

No longer was he weighed down by pessimistic thoughts. Wei Wuyin was ready to use every last advantage he had built over his long road of alchemy to achieve victory here against the apex-tier Alchemic Dao of an entire galactic cluster spanning a boundless area and an unimaginably absurd number of lives.

The rules of an All-Alchemic Clash were both simple and complex, containing an incredible amount of subtle and obvious critical decision-making within its ruleset, where choices carried a significant impact on the result, and even the slightest picosecond of timing and quality could determine the victor.

To begin, the competition involved all four types of alchemical products: Pill, Pellet, Paste, and Potion(Elixirs). It challenged overall skill in an alchemistʼs Alchemic Dao without the slightest oversight, requiring the winner to achieve victory in an overwhelmingly convincing and irrefutable way. In the Utmost Purity Galaxyʼs culture, it was one of the ways to ʼkillʼ an alchemist, shattering their Alchemic Dao or outright making the wager a forced suicide.

The Challenged Party—Wei Wuyin—makes the first product type choice for the clash. Then, the Challenger—the Zeniths—selects their next choice, excluding previously selected choices. This goes back and forth until all four types are chosen.

After the selection segment, the first true battle of an All-Alchemic Clash despite its simplicity, the selecting party chooses the alchemical recipe of their choice, which includes the grade. This was the second battle for both parties to gain an advantage, allowing them to choose recipes that the other party was unfamiliar with, which could include their specialty. That said, if an alchemist sought to maintain secrecy with their specialty recipes, like the Heaven-Refinement Novacore Paste for Heaven-Saint Refining Skies, they would often not select it in fear of exposing their precious lineageʼs secrets.

However, at times, this lineage-exposing play might greatly advantage the brave party willing to do so, gaining a guarantee to win their selection.

Due to having four selections, an All-Alchemic Clash had six outcomes:

3-0 - Wei Wuyin.

3-0 - Zeniths.

2-2, Tiebreaker - Wei Wuyin.

2-2, Tiebreaker - Zeniths.

3-1 - Wei Wuyin.

3-1 - Zeniths.

Unlike normal All-Alchemic Clashes, Wei Wuyin was fighting the behemoths of the Alchemic Dao all at once due to them using their legacies as leverage, justifying such an unfair seven-against-one match-up. But fairness was never the goal of an All-Alchemic Clash. Still, their involvement added an extra layer of complexity that forced an additional rule.

Wei Wuyin had to, in this uphill circumstance, defeat all seven Heavenly Saint Alchemists; as long as Wei Wuyin outclassed four out of seven Zeniths in a selected category, it would be his win. This underlying rule was typical in many-against-one Alchemic Clash such as this.

While this seemed beneficial to Wei Wuyin on the surface, considering their difference in cultivation in the Alchemic Dao, seven Heavenly Saint Alchemists versus a Grand-tier Worldly Saint Alchemist, it was far from being it. However, the Zenith had psychologically pushed Wei Wuyin into this imbalanced situation that was clearly in their favor. In the eyes of the observers, this was outright bullying.

”Have I made the rules clear to all parties? Are there any questions?” The Palace Lord of the Incandescent Star Palace asked with gravity in his tone, stressing the importance of such rules being fully understood.

Whether it was the Zeniths or Wei Wuyin, they all nodded and verbalized their understanding. Then, and only then, did the Palace Lord deeply inhale and exhale before giving each party a solemn look. With a slow hand-seal, he pulsed with resonant qi of the heavens as square outlines etched themselves into the crystallized ground of chaos mana, designating the concoction zones of each participant.

A thick line of shimmering light established on the ground divided Wei Wuyin and the Zenith as they took opposing sides, facing each other.

”You may move to your designated locations and make our preparations. Youʼll have seven days to do so.” the Palace Lord instructed before the three neutral Supreme Sages took their positions in the sky. They didnʼt act as announcers, only judges, and referees to regulate the enforcement of rules and traditions.

The announcers were linked to Wei Wuyinʼs Spiritual Network, and amongst them were Luo Ning, the recently awakened Tianshi Ya of the Creation Zone, White Sky of the Sea & Sky Institute, Mei Xiaoyang of the Soothing Jade Institute, and Hao Chengxue of the Utmost Purity Hall in the Growth Zone.

Excluding Luo Ning, they were all Worldly Saint Alchemists, and the majority were beautiful and accomplished women with pleasant voices and even greater aesthetic appeal, allowing the observers to feast their eyes on their demeanors and presence without boredom. Hao Chengxue was the lead announcer, his boisterous energy at an uncharacteristically all-time high.

They formulated a proper quintet of cultivation and skill in the Alchemic Dao, including Tianshi Ya and Luo Ning having direct familiarity with two of the eight Alchemic Lineages in this clash.

They were already speculating on the upcoming preparations each Zenith would make.

In the Utmost Purity Galaxy, setting up a cauldron properly required skill and finesse and could greatly affect concoction time and quality. There was an art to it, and it was not a minor segment at all.

The Zeniths entered their designated zones, which were a perfect cube. Even their airspace was limited within the zones, the faint lines of light faintly shimmering revealing that they could only operate within a region of a hundred miles by a hundred miles by a hundred miles.

While this might seem excessively large, to cultivators of their levels, they needed significant space to operate and establish their various preparatory tools, arts, spells, formations, and arrays. In actuality, this space was extremely limiting as their usual range of cultivation was entire planets or specialized realms.

Wei Wuyin was highly irregular, often operating in just his Original Dawn Palaceʼs Alchemical Chamber. This was largely due to his innate talent and method for concoction, not too keen on leveraging external advantages mostly because he rarely had any in his lifetime.

In actuality, the greatest external advantage that Wei Wuyin had ever utilized was the cauldrons themselves. He was almost a purist when it came to his alchemical concoction methods, further justifying his awakening of the Alchemic Stars of Unparalleled Creation and unrivaled title as the first Mortal Saint Alchemist defying all conventions.

Suddenly, the chaos mana in the region grew silent as unprecedented pressure and intensity built, purely the result of incredible mental strength.

Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinityʼs extraordinarily tall figure in vibrant scarlet and gold made a move. He exuded an incredibly sagely and divine presence as he reached toward the air. Then, with a sharp inhale and forceful exhale, the region of a hundred miles erupted in a scarlet hue as sparkles of gold emerged within. If counted, they numbered seven hundred and seventy-seven glows.

They each resembled shining stars in a scarlet-colored starry sky, bathing the region in a solar and heavenly radiance that was unmistakable. Immediately, his aura plummeted in intensity but rose in purity as he executed an incredible domain-type Spiritual Spell. Then, he pinched his brow and pulled as if extracting his Sea of Consciousness.

From within his Mindʼs Eye, the gateway to his True Soul within his Sea of Consciousness, a deep scarlet cauldron that dwarfed him by a hundred times emerged. He flew upwards with a gorgeous flutter of his robes, exuding a gravitas that elevated his handsome features and dominating presence. He resembled a deity as his robes fluttered about without wind. The surface of the cauldron exerted a suction force, pulling the golden glows resembling heavenly stars into it.

CLAP!

The ancient and androgynous Heaven-Saint Growing Immortality slammed their two wrinkly hands together, unleashing a burst of vigorous and decaying energies that swirled about like harrowing shadows of the sweetest dreams and the greatest of nightmares. Sounds of infant laughter and the regretful wails of aged souls resounded disturbingly from within.

She pulled out seven items, three pure-white obelisks containing a boundless and alluring vitality that was enriched by an infectious pulse of fortune, and four jet-black obelisks that exuded the darkest absolution of life at its end, extremely unsettling as mere gazing at it felt as if one was losing life force. Whether it was an illusion or not, all its aura was thoroughly trapped within the hundred-mile zone by a shimmering barrier that experienced signs of corrosion and repairs, neither of which were initiated or maintained by the neutral Supreme Sages.

They were watching in awe and expressions of incredible disbelief. Not a single Supreme Sage present was an exception, with a few even gasping in shock.

”Vitality & Decay Quasi-Heaven Array?!” This Domain-type Spiritual Spell supported by seven formation flags was enough to cause each Supreme Sage to be observed with varying solemness. It emulated Microheavens!

”Heaven-Saint Growing Immortality isnʼt holding back…” the Goliath Bird Sovereign whispered.

”...” The Golden Night Sovereign and Incandescent Star Sovereign remained quiet yet their gazes flickered repeatedly.

The announcers were equally as flabbergasted.

Tianshi Zaoxuan, also known as Heaven-Saint Containing Creation, didnʼt pay attention to the others. He brought out seven thousand seven-colored pitons and began hammering them within the chaos mana. He was methodical and slow, lacking the flash of the two domains, but with each successful stab, the zone of a hundred miles began to exude Utmost Purity Mist and Enlightened Scholar Mist. A single piton gave birth to a grade one Utmost Purity Mist that enveloped the entire zone.

Heaven-Saint Refining Skies briefly glanced at Tianshi Zaoxuan before making his preparations. He brought out seven-colored tomes of varying thickness, numbering a total of seven hundred thousand in number. They exuded extremely rich and high-grade Enlightened Scholarly Mist. They slowly flew about like doves, using their pages and covers like wings, flapping as they circled the entire zone.

Soon, they began to merge like a mesh of flesh and pages. Faintly, they formed a cauldron that shone like a solar star with scholarly light and alchemical light.

The youngest of the seven was the most impressive. With a soft roar that echoed across time and space, he slammed his two hands upon the ground as a formation of intricate design was established that fit the entire hundred-mile zone. The formation released seven colors in growing intensity. Meanwhile, the chaos mana within the region began to rapidly transform into grade three Utmost Purity Mist.

Grade Three Mist was specifically utterly insane! This correlated to the upper stages of the Mystic Ascendant Realm! Heaven-Saint Transforming World was not an extraordinarily talented genius for no reason it seemed!

While the purity of the mist was a little lacking, quite thin from the Grade Three Mist that Wei Wuyin had produced, the fact he could generate this by relying on his cultivation base and Alchemic Dao was unrivaled!

Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls simply brought out an entire palace constructed from Spiritual Power and Alchemic Power, a unique Spiritual Spell on par with the Zenith World used to gather the Zeniths!

The Zenith Palace!

When it was summoned in a greatly miniature form, Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls had vanished within its confines as he brought out various items with practiced ease, likely intending to establish several arrays and formations to assist his concoction. Moreover, the Zenith Palace Spell served to guard against any ill-intended alchemists here with stealthy methods.

Wei Wuyin blinked, quietly observing the Zeniths put on a wondrous display of wealth, skill and cultivation base.

Then, he just walked to the center of his zone. With a gentle wave of his sleeve, a simple alchemical table was set. Then, he brought out his cauldron.

”...”

That was it.

Smacking his lips, Wei Wuyin couldnʼt help but realize that his Alchemic Dao might be a little too simple.