Paragon of Sin

Wu Yu realized that they had truly driven off-topic, so he thought for a moment and nodded. While he still had more questions about the Alchemic Dao, there would be plenty of time to launch inquiries later. He started his explanation, "As I said before: Rune Seeds are constructs of Mystic Intent, Mystic Essence, and Mana. After the conditions of sensing and interaction are fulfilled, one can proceed to make Rune Seeds."

Wu Yu proceeded to launch into an extremely long explanation that took two hours to fully complete, yet Wei Wuyin was deeply enthralled by every syllable. Since he was young, Wei Wuyin has always been an extremely attentive student, ready to grasp knowledge with his greatest effort. While the topic was exhaustive, with some specific details repeated numerous times, it afforded Wei Wuyin a basic understanding of the qualifications to ascend to the Mystic Ascendant Realm and the purpose of Mystic Rune Seeds.

More shockingly, Wu Yu had referred to the Mystic Rune Seeds that Wei Wuyin talked about as Fragments of Mysticism. This fumbled him a little, but Wu Yu caught himself and explained that this was his own naming sense and that some of the others had different names for it. For example, the Divine King Han Xei called them Dao Runes. The Sacred Elven Queen had called them Ascension Fragments. Her take was a little more developed, even going as far as saying that each rune was reflective of a cultivator's Ascension level, and the Ascension itself was a puzzle that needed these fragments to be completed.

These different comprehensions hadn't been rectified after they reached the Mystic Ascendant Realm, much like how those at the Sixth Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, the False Reality Phase, hadn't settled on what to call Mana even after sensing it, absorbing it, and using it to reach their current phase.

This brought a faint smile to Wei Wuyin as he recalled World Qi, what he named Mana all those years back. The nostalgia was quite strong but reinforced in him once again that cultivation was difficult, and they were all travelers on that path. This disunity of information and lack of a stable name made exchanging one's knowledge incredibly difficult; hence, Wu Yu tried to keep his own naming sense out of the explanation.

Wei Wuyin sat in the lotus position as he digested all this information. These so-called Mystic Rune Seeds were created by Starlords in their Star Core, the evolved version of their Astral Core. The Star Core contained Starforce, not Astral Force, and could minimally interact with Mystic Essence and Mystic Intent.

According to Wu Yu, this was due to the fact that Starforce was bonded by mystic-graded Mana.

There were two types of Mystic Rune Seeds: Incomplete & Complete. The Rune Seeds themselves are initially made by absorbing Mystic Essence within one's World Sea, forming in a natural manner. The more Mystic Essence absorbed, the more Rune Seeds manifest themselves. It was quite simple. However, these Rune Seeds were all incomplete.

The cultivator must then contemplate on the runes themselves and comprehend the Mystic Intent's fragmented insights that the Rune Seeds contain. This was the difficult portion of cultivation. While developing Mystic Rune Seeds are indicative of bodily talent's absorption rate, the actual finalization of these Mystic Rune Seeds needed solely insights into Mystic Intent, and each Rune Seed contained one of the 81 Fragments of Mystic Intent.

This shook Wei Wuyin when he had initially heard it, questioning how Mystic Intent could have 81 fragments of itself. When did Intent have 81 Intent Seeds? This threw Wei Wuyin's pre-existing knowledge of Intent for a swirl.

However, Wu Yu only dryly smiled and stated that each Rune Seed was roughly equivalent to comprehending a mid-level Elemental Intent to the Awakened Intent Stage. This was why it was so tremendously difficult to ascend—the very first gatekeeper of the Mystic Dao.

Naturally, Wei Wuyin interjected that the comparison likely only existed for him. After meeting individuals like Yao Houyi, who comprehended two Heart Intents at the Qi Condensation Realm, he was absolutely certain that difficulties of comprehension were extremely relative—a case-by-case basis. Wu Yu begrudgingly accepted this.

Furthermore, to meet the requirements to initiate the First Ascension, one must have all 81 Rune Seeds in one's World Sea, not a single less. Therefore, one must cultivate by absorbing Mystic Essence until then—another difficult obstacle to overcome. If one's bodily talent were too low, even if they comprehended all the profundities in half of the Rune Seeds, it would all be for naught.

The most important fact that Wu Yu explained, the most crucial, the most heartbreaking, and the most chill-inducing fact was that you were unable to tell if Mystic Rune Seeds were incomplete or complete until after you faced your First Ascension. This was a brutal discovery. And from here, Wei Wuyin fully realized why far too many cultivators failed to ascend, especially if Mystic Rune Seeds and Mystic Intent were absolutely vital to ascending.

And it was.

Wu Yu had explained that he had 55 Complete Rune Seeds, just 55. According to him, Divine King Han Xei had 48, and that little cousin of his, Han Yuhei, had 34. The Sacred Elven Queen never disclosed her achievements, and the Demonic Abyss Master had a tense relationship with Wu Yu, so they never really disclosed any information between each other.

Wei Wuyin unhesitatingly asked about what Runic Ascendant meant and if 81 was divisible by 9, indicating 9 Runic Ascendant states was the result. If so, this meant Han Yuhei was a 3rd Runic Ascendant and Wu Yu was a 6th Runic Ascendant. If so, then the 5th Runic Ascendant Soul Rising Saint was inferior.

However, Wu Yu corrected him instantly with a hint of smugness within after learning the Soul Rising Saint was a 5th Runic Ascendant. This was because he had formed seven Complete Mystic Runes after ascending, not six. Wu Yu wasn't actually certain if seven runes meant being a 7th Runic Ascendant, but he felt proud of it nonetheless. It went without saying that Wu Yu's assumption might be incorrect. There could be some unique formula, such that two cultivators with 55 Complete Rune Seeds might become different levels of Runic Ascendant.

However, if Wu Yu was correct, then zero completed rune seeds might still allow one to become a 1st Runic Ascendant. Could this be evidence that a cultivator could, in theory, ascend without comprehending any of the fragments of Mystic Intent? This baffled him, causing the curiosity of the Mystic Ascensions to grow, but also becoming doubtful of Wu Yu's claims.

Unfortunately, Wu Yu was unable to describe the process of his first Mystic Ascension. Actually, he could, but it came off as gibberish and unnatural wording usage that caused Wei Wuyin to grow even more confused. Realizing once again that cultivators within the cultivation realm had barely any ability to divulge information about the realm, Wei Wuyin settled his curiosity for now.

All this information digested, he now discovered why his transcendent Astral World-Deluge Pills had caused six Mystic Rune Seeds to be generated in each of his World Seas. These were incomplete Mystic Rune Seeds that contained Mystic Intent and Mystic Essence that he could comprehend. If so, then the transcendent Astral World-Deluge Pills were products that rapidly constructed Mystic Runes.

Two and a quarter of these pills equally created six Mystic Rune Seeds across his World Seas. This greatly indicated that its effectiveness was not like the Qi Essence Motes from the Qi Condensation Realm. During that phase, his products had developed a lopsided amount based on their own internal qualities. Kratos required the most effort to get 99 Qi Essence Motes, while King needed the least. If anything, this was evidence that the initial path of the Mystic Dao was entirely fair across the board.

That or his Astral Souls had become entirely equivalent in their needs. Considering this, he pondered for a bit and was unable to decide. He'll have to test it on others to discover the truth.

All of this digested properly, Wei Wuyin still felt there were crucial details about the Ascensions themselves that he was missing. Nevertheless, he had his initial question answered thoroughly and now understood the next steps he needed to take to become an Ascended being.

Time slowly passed…

Three days later.

Wu Yu was thoroughly engrossed in the Blood Origin Method while on the Voidship, re-reading it with a frown. From his attitude towards this method, he was fully intent on cultivating this to completion. To acquire a secondary Dantian, what type of endless benefits will this present? Moreover, he could guarantee his chances of becoming a Demi-Mortal Lord! Unfortunately, the cultivation of this method was extremely complex, and even after these three days, he was unable to grasp the first stages' cultivation procedures and techniques.

Wei Wuyin, on the other hand, was meditating regarding all the information he'd received about Mystic Intent and Mystic Essence. He spent the last three days using his immensely powerful spiritual sense to inspect the twenty-four Mystic Rune Seeds in his World Seas, hoping to gain insights into something…anything.

Unfortunately, his spiritual sense might be abnormally powerful, but even if you had a thousand kilotons of strength, if a door was unbreakable, you'd still need the key to get in. He lacked that key—the Star Core Phase.

It seems that reaching the pinnacle of the Mortal Limits was absolutely required to interact with the Mystic Dao. This further supported Eden's feelings that he wouldn't be able to concoct transcendent products himself without a certain something. And Wei Wuyin now knew what that was; he needed Alchemic Starforce to interact with the Mystic Dao.

Fortunately, his genius was not gated by this cultivation restriction, and he forged a method to bypass this requirement with ingenuity and Bai Lin. Unfortunately, his current visual blight was costing him precious time to concoct these transcendent products.

With a slight sigh, he ended his cultivation effort and decided to focus his attention on solving this issue.

Wu Yu sensed Wei Wuyin's movements and lifted his gaze, awaiting orders. Just from initially reading this method, he knew he needed an alchemist to have any semblance of success without a century of effort and sufficient wealth to support his cultivation. The Origin Essence was already a problematic component to acquire. Even Han Xei needed to scour the world and back to obtain a small amount.

"We're going to the Aeternal Sky Starfield," Wei Wuyin announced.

This caused Wu Yu's heart to jolt.. Then, he eagerly smiled: "Finally, Young Lord."