Paragon of Sin

"Guh!" Wei Wuyin instantly fell to the floor with a heavy, resounding thud, his voice spewing chaotic mutterings and ramblings. Froth formed at the edge of his lips, and his body twisted oddly. Even his eyes rolled backward.

"Master!" Bai Xiu instantly manifested from her slumber within the Neo-Dawn Ascension Cauldron with an expression smeared with anxiety and fear. She hovered over Wei Wuyin's seizing body, unsure of what to do as her hands and body were shivering.

"AH!" She tried to connect with Wei Wuyin through their mental connection but received a backlash that caused her to wail in agony, her spiritual form shimmered on the verge of collapse, and she slumped back into the Neo-Dawn Ascension Cauldron as a defensive mechanism of self-preservation, severing her connection to all things.

Bai Xiu had felt great, hell-raising, soul-rending pain that was indescribable. The moment they formed a connection, Bai Xiu begged for the sweet relief of death. This was something she hadn't ever sought or thought about before, knowing full well that Spiritforms were practically immortal existences without a lifespan or soulspan; they existed as long as their Daos remained.

Currently, the internal activity within Wei Wuyin's body and mind was extreme to the limit. His neurons were firing at a rate that even Ascended beings wouldn't have been able to endure, with their psyche collapsing by now, but the trait of inexhaustibility born from the Neo-Dawn Paragon-Forging Pill activated and maintained their stability and core structure.

"Kree!" Bai Lin cried out in panic. In that panic, she gingerly used her wings to hold Wei Wuyin, unleashing her Nirvanic Flames with pure, bursting life energy to envelop him. Wei Wuyin's seizing body didn't stop despite her attempts to placate his condition. Unaware of the cause of it, she could only unsparingly exert her Nirvanic Flames life-infusing to their limits.

Wei Wuyin's condition hadn't improved, but something within him did react!

Years ago, Wei Wuyin faced Trueborn as they launched an operation to seize Yue Songli. In the process, he learned about their self-detonation mechanism, including its nemesis—Nirvanic Flames. As a result, he decided to cultivate Nirvanic Flames to better equip himself against them. Ma Zheng had once studied the Blazing Unity of Twin Flames Method's Phoenix portion and passed on the method to cultivate Nirvanic Flame Intent, a Unique Intent.

Shortly after acquiring the method, Wei Wuyin discovered that he was unable to cultivate it largely due to missing the Vermillion Physique Cultivation Method that enabled the safe birth of Nirvanic Flames Intent without the risk. This wasn't an issue that had a complex solution. Wei Wuyin concluded that after his Earth-Refined Astral Physique form, the properties of his Elemental Origin Starforce would grant him the ability to do so.

Due to placing it aside, Wei Wuyin sealed a condensed drop of Bai Lin's Essence Blood inside his Dantian, kept under control by Ori's Astral Core in the hopes of using a fusion method to merge the Essence Blood into Ori's Star Core Formation. Even during the metamorphosis, the drop of Essence Blood remained sealed.

Ori, King, Kratos, and Eden were all connected to Wei Wuyin's Primary Mind, so the backlash from the hell-rising agony that he felt was violently sent into them, causing their Astral Souls to fiercely distort and their Astral Cores to experience intensely brutal quakings that led to surface fractures! The drop of condensed Essence Blood reacted to Bai Lin's actions, no longer actively sealed, and escaped!

Ori's Astral Core was instantly ignited with Nirvanic Flames! They flowed across the Dantian—its home, but the Essence Blood no longer contained Bai Lin's gentle will, defaulting to incineration due to existing in a foreign body!

Wei Wuyin's Dantian glowed with scarlet-golden light! If it wasn't for the faint silvery glow of inexhaustibility preserving his Dantian's existence, keeping the Nirvanic Flames trapped in a cage, Wei Wuyin's recently forged physique would've ignited into ash.

Despite its often energetic and chaotic personality, Ori was one of the most stable of the four Astral Souls. Ori was the first, after all. In terms of soul connection with Wei Wuyin, it was the strongest that not even Kratos and Eden could match. Furthermore, it was the most reliable!

With the utmost haste, Ori exerted her spiritual strength to instantly push King's Astral Core out of Wei Wuyin, forcefully externalizing it as the Nirvanic Flames encroached. Despite being similarly plagued by the chaotic implosion of Wei Wuyin's minds, its reaction was exceptionally swift to the point that she acted before the Dantian went aflame.

Whoosh!

King externalized!

It incessantly trembled beside Wei Wuyin as Bai Lin enveloped it with her gentle, life-infusing Nirvanic Flames. While Wei Wuyin's newly refined physique could resist the incineration might of the Nirvanic Flames, this was only temporary, as the inexhaustibility of its structure had a limit, as all things did.

Ori continued to act; it exuded Elemental Shifting Soul Light by the ocean-full, pouring all it could into Wei Wuyin's Dantian as it tried to seize control of the rampant Nirvanic Flames by exerting control over its fire principles. Ori flooded Wei Wuyin's entire body as a safety precaution! It needed to step up and ensure that Wei Wuyin and its siblings didn't die today!

SIZZZZZZ!!!

Wei Wuyin's flailing increased as a familiar burning sound resounded; it originated from his bones! Not only had Bai Lin caused her Essence Blood to react with good intentions, but Ori had also similarly caused something else latent, yet to dissipate, to react as well!

Wei Wuyin's body glowed with a fiery dark light that was as black as night yet as brilliant as the stars in the vast Dark Void.

HELLFIRE!

From within his bones, Hellfire was born anew by Ori's Elemental Shifting Soul Light, prodding its soul and fire properties all at once. With time, the Hellfire would've been naturally refined, but Ori's Elemental Shifting Soul Light was incredibly special in its way of instigating infinite transformations and endless permutations of the elements, including awakening and suppressing!

The Nirvanic Flames' might of incineration might be heavily suppressed, but Hellfire's soul-burning properties went awry!

"!!!" All three Astral Souls painfully screamed, Ori included, as Wei Wuyin's entire bone structure ignited violently with Hellfire affecting his brain, heart, and Dantian. One problem was dealt with, and another arose! Ori lost itself, unable to control her Soul Light. Spiraling out of control, both Nirvanic Flames and Hellfire verged on complete chaos, and should they happen, Wei Wuyin was finished.

They all were.

"Tch!" King had been pushed out by Ori, saved from the incineration and soul-burning might of the two flames, and while the excruciating mental pain that Wei Wuyin felt still affected it, the screaming cries of its siblings had caused its spirit to gather together with urgency, regaining clarity of self.

"By my edge, all things end!" King ferociously roared out its greatest mantra of will, what defined its Saber Will, and forcefully unleashed its Omega Saber Soul Light to sever his and Wei Wuyin's mental connection! Instantly, it freed itself from the agony, only capable of hearing the soul-rending screams of its siblings at this point.

"Tch!" Seeing the predicament they were in, King was not an Astral Soul who panicked or stalled out! As an Omega Saber, it acted! While it wasn't as versatile as Eden, Kratos, or Ori, it had something none of them had: AN EDGE! Its Astral Core exuded a faint Spiritual Light with profound Saber Intent, unleashing its strongest saber!

Its target?

Eden!

While it had its edge, it wasn't stupid to believe it could solve this issue. So it brought an end to Eden's mental connection with Wei Wuyin, severing their bond, and this caused Eden to instinctively externalize. The Astral Core shot out of Wei Wuyin's glabella, enveloped in Hellfire. Seeing this, King didn't hesitate to strike out once again! It attacked the hellfire and, by its annihilating principles, as it had done many, many times in the Calamity of Blade and Fire, destroyed it!

Eden was instantly freed from the dual affliction of mental implosion and Hellfire.

"Eden!" King exclaimed.

If Ori was the most reliable, then Eden was irrefutably the most responsible and an innately gifted problem-solver. While it was the third sibling born, it acted with the poise of the eldest sibling and often was the main contributor to their planned chaotic antics that caused Wei Wuyin to nearly die again and again. Of course, they were all from the same soul, so innately, they all had the nature of an Exploitative Blessed!

"This?!" Eden spun with endless cracks on its surface, which spewed out astral force and alchemic eden energies like wild.

"No!" Of course, despite its escape, the situation hadn't been solved or even remotely close to being over. While Eden was now free, King's actions led to Wei Wuyin's mind losing a safeguard and layer of stability. If it weren't for Eden and the Heavenly War Spirit working in unison when Wei Wuyin's Primary Mind collapsed, both Secondary and Primary Minds of Wei Wuyin would've long since exploded.

But it knew that King's action wasn't wrong; unfortunately, it needed to act quickly! With a constant gushing flow of its Seven Source Soul Light, it began to pour all it had into Wei Wuyin's glabella, entering his Sea of Consciousness, and providing aid that it couldn't have before due to Hellfire's soul-burning and suppressing might! The rate at which both minds exploded and reformed due to their Enlightened Scholarly Mist had slowed down considerably. The situation had somewhat stabilized, but only temporarily, and Eden knew that!

A band-aid wasn't a solution.

"What do I need to do?!" King asked urgently, his Astral Core exuding ferocious saber light.

"..." Eden didn't respond, trying to think while sending stabilizing power into Wei Wuyin's Sea of Consciousness. One of its thoughts was to forcefully externalize the other two Astral Souls, but given Wei Wuyin's current situation of unregulated control, doing so would instigate a Cultivation Deviation Event. If Wei Wuyin exploded, none of them would survive.

Then, it saw how Ori's Soul Light interacted with the Nirvanic Flames and Hellfire despite Ori's agonizing screams. While it wasn't suppressing it, the flames weren't burning it either. Hellfire was capable of burning and suppressing souls, it was designed for that purpose, but Ori's Elemental Shifting Soul Light wasn't burning! It wasn't affected!

"Orianna! Do you hear me?!" Eden sent Ori a message but received no reply. It could only push through and hope, "You need to absorb all Elemental Energy around you, Ori! Absorb it! ABSORB ALL OF IT!"

After understanding Eden's intent, King also exclaimed, "TAKE IT ALL!"

Ori's fractured Astral Core trembled violently.

If Kratos was the most domineering, if King was the most decisive, if Eden was the most responsible, then Ori was the most RELIABLE!