Paragon of Sin

Wei Wuyin was now given a problem he was almost entirely ignorant of, unable to even conceive an idea of how to rectify this situation with what he had. He was, after all, a mere mortal. The aspects of Life Source and Soulspan exceeded his understanding, let alone when these two things were elevated to the mystic-grade.

How could these Earthly Saints be so delusional? How could Ma Sujiang?! For the first time in a long while, as he watched Ma Zheng's limp body barely kept upright by Wu Yu's power, he felt a wave of anxiety course through his heart and mind. He felt an urge to gulp down a swath of saliva, but he, fortunately, resisted the urge.

He hadn't thought that he would be put to the test immediately after playing upon their ill-conceived conclusions of his origins. In their eyes, The King of Everlore was a Worldly Saint Alchemist, and from what he knew, he was now a Heavenly Saint Alchemist in the far-off Azure-Prime Galactic Zone. If anyone could casually solve this issue, then it was him.

Wu Yu knew of Wei Wuyin's predicament, knowing that he might be a man of mystery, but he wasn't connected at all to the King of Everlore besides his silver eyes and Alchemic Talents. He was aware of their predicament, but there was little he could do.

Well, he could kill Ma Zheng stealthily and send him on his way. The thought crossed his mind, eliminating this dilemma with ease, but he decided against even bringing it up to Wei Wuyin as an option. From what he believed, Wei Wuyin wasn't an ungrateful existence that would abandon others for his sake selfishly, so doing so might only anger him.

If Wei Wuyin knew about Wu Yu's plan, he might have seriously considered it. Ma Zheng was on his deathbed, roughly ninety-nine percent in the grave already, only surviving off Ma Sujiang's infusion of lifeforce to sustain his consciousness and continued existence. If nothing could be done, bringing an end to his zombified state was a kind mercy.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Wu Yu was right about Wei Wuyin's character. While he might have considered it, he wouldn't do so unless it was the only option and all other avenues had been exhausted.

'I need solutions. Think, Wuyin, think.' Wei Wuyin closed his eyes, effectively using his mental energies to rapidly consider various options. He was aware of Soulspans and Life Sources, and while he wasn't too knowledgeable, he knew their general purpose and how they functioned. These two aspects were the crucial core of one's life.

The Life Source generates and stores Lifeforce to be used or exhausted for continued existence. It wasn't a flesh organ that was set in place but a metaphysical construct developed by the soul when it inhabited a body. All things, even a demon born through the Soul Impartation of the Heavens, had a Life Source. While this Life Source varied from species to species, race to race, and sometimes different amongst genders, it was extremely vital.

When a cultivator ascends to the Qi Condensation Realm, forming their Metaphysical Qi, they connect their Life Source with their cultivation base and Spirit of Cultivation. They become loosely linked, such that an advancement in one could benefit the other. This allowed cultivators to live for far, far longer than expected.

Those at the Qi Condensation Realm's middle-stages could live for two hundred or so years, roughly three times the average lifespan of a human.

Whereas the soulspan was closely connected to their Spirit of Cultivation, a manifestation of their physical, mental, and soul-based energies. When the Spirit of Cultivation advanced, so did the inherent levels of one's lifespan. But lifespan and soulspan were very different.

The former could be enhanced through external means, refilled, and restored if damaged, but the latter was the soul's lifespan itself. If it was exhausted, it could outright dissipate. The more a Life Source is used, the weaker it becomes, lessening the total amount of lifeforce a cultivator could possess while simultaneously elevating the body's need for lifeforce with every conscious breath they took. Eventually, they'll need higher quality lifeforce to keep their bodies alive.

The lack of required lifeforce would generate bodily phenomena similar to losing oxygen, making the body starved and suffocating for more. The state was exactly Ma Zheng's. However, with his Life Source being damaged to this extent, there was no way his body could hold lifeforce to survive, hence the need to be infused with it externally.

Ma Zheng had long since exhausted his 'naturally-given' lifeforce through cultivation. He had used various alchemical products and life-enriched resources to refuel his reserves of lifeforce, allowing him to significantly bypass his natural limits bestowed by advancing his cultivation. Just from how Ma Sujiang had lost thousands of years for an hour or so was sufficient to understand the degree of needs his Life Source had been driven to.

The quality and quantity of lifeforce for every breath of life was extreme for Ma Zheng.

But this was physical, the Soul and Spirit of Cultivation had a Soulspan, which determined the limits of their natural life as beings. This soulspan was typically longer than what was obtained through lifeforce, roughly thirty to forty percent greater.

So for Soul of Mysticism cultivators, they would roughly have a soulspan of 13,000 to 14,000 years, bestowed 9,000 years or so years of personally refined lifeforce—the only type of lifeforce that didn't need to exhaust a higher ratio. By the time they reach their lifeforce limit, they'll need richer, copious amounts of lifeforce to replenish themselves.

When the soulspan's limit was reached, there was no saving. They could only pass off into the next world, claimed by the cycle of reincarnation, drawn to Hell, and receive their judgment.

'The Mark of Eden is a temporary fix. It won't work.' Wei Wuyin considered using the Mark of Eden's unrefined lifeforce as a solution. It was the only type of lifeforce with a 1:1 ratio, carrying the same qualities as a living being's personally refined lifeforce. Of course, Ma Zheng's extended life would typically consume several hours of lifeforce for a single breath at this point. However, it was useless. Ma Zheng's soulspan was exhausted; the most he could do was extend his current life to that limit and keep it up until then.

"How long does he have left?" Wei Wuyin asked Wu Yu.

Wu Yu frowned, inspecting deeper to get a better estimate. What he found caused his eyes to contract with shock. "Not long, three hours at most."

"WHAT?!" Ma Sujiang started. She was about to, in her panic, send more of her own lifeforce into Ma Zheng. Fortunately, a hand reached and grabbed her wrist, stopping her from infusing more. She had already lost four thousand of her own personally refined lifeforce. While she could make up for this loss through alchemical products and specific cultivation methods, her Life Source was suffering damage.

It was the same as if the lungs were breathing too much, too quickly, or the heart pumped out blood at its fastest possible speed. The strain was intense. Underneath her eyes, sunken dark spots formed, not because of exhaustion, but her skin was losing its tautness.

The hand was none other than Wei Wuyin! While he couldn't hope to stop her if she truly wanted, his actions had caused her to stop. She knew the heavy cost she was paying, and maybe because of her reluctance to accept it or hope that Wei Wuyin had a solution, she stopped with her eyes wide and her lips trembling.

When she looked into his captivating silver eyes, that beautiful color, she truly sought that much-needed hope. She begged for it. She was her father's last child. The amount of love, care, and attention she received was likely greater than even his wives or other children. She was brought all the way to the Soul of Mysticism while none of his other children got remotely close.

It was easy to get lost in the difficulties of cultivation when Earthly Saints were surrounding you, but as you remember there are less than two hundred Earthly Saints in the entire Grand Cyclic Stellar Region, which has a population in the tens of quadrillions, being reminded of it wasn't too difficult.

So she was extremely fortunate, only because her father stayed beside her, taught her, trained her, pushed her, and devoted teaching her his life's wisdom without holding anything back. She was his greatest legacy, and he was her daddy!

"Pl-please…" Her eyes grew wet, and she seemed on the verge of sobbing, breaking her demeanor of a tough, cool-headed, and intelligent beauty. "Please save him! Any-anything you want, just please…"

"..." The Earthly Saints watched all this in solemn silence. Their emotions began to grow quite turbulent in their hearts. Who here hasn't lost important people to time? A wife, a husband, a child, a parent, or a friend? Who here doesn't know what it means to lose someone to the cruelty of time or brutality of the fight to seize?

Wu Yu's eyes turned away; those usually domineering eyes showed a vulnerable light. He remembered his wife, Junia, and her laying on her deathbed. She was unable to break the shackles of cultivation and passed away in his arms.

There was a reason cultivators sought those with similar or greater talents and potential…

Wei Wuyin's hands holding Ma Sujiang's wrist shook. The look in her eyes was unexpected. It reminded him of his own reflection, the feeling he had when he wished that his older brother had survived somehow, that he would come back to him safe and sound. But it wasn't just that.

Long ago, kneeling at a gravesite, he clenched the dirt that buried his unborn child and its mother. That desperation and willingness to do or give anything in exchange for a chance for salvation—a chance to make the pain go away.

Wei Wuyin let Ma Sujiang's wrist go, walking back a little as he clenched his fists tightly, so harshly that his knuckles became ash-white. His head felt as if it was being pounded by a titanic hammer of steel, smashing into the depths of his Sea of Consciousness.

He didn't know what to do…

"You're not a Virtue of Dao; She's unreasonable." Suddenly, a voice sounded from within his head. It was soft, gentle, and very familiar!

Wei Wuyin instantly recognized the voice of the War Spirit; its undisguised voice was feminine, like a prepubescent. He had bought a Heavenly War Spirit for 5,000,000 War Souls, but since then, it's been staying dormant within his Sea of Consciousness while absorbing bits of his refined mental energies.

He hurriedly manifested a mental avatar of himself and entered his Sea of Consciousness, spotting a golden egg at the base of Eden's vast tree trunk. It seemed unchanged, but it had clearly spoken just earlier.

Wei Wuyin didn't consider it a figment of his imagination, directly asking: "What's a Virtue of Dao?"

The Heavenly War Spirit egg didn't reply immediately but began to rapidly absorb his mental energies like an elephant sucking water. That hammer-smashing headache occurred again, and he realized that his mental energies had been drained by roughly a quarter. Considering how refined and vast his mental energies were, this shook him deeply.

"A legendary existence; it isn't relevant." The little girl's voice sounded again, but this time there were signs of exhaustion quivering within.

"..." Wei Wuyin inspected his reserves of mental energy. The Heavenly War Spirit was quickly draining his mental energy to send out fluctuations to communicate. Clearly, it wasn't ready to hatch, or whatever it needed to do, to fully form.

"Is there something you want to say?" He didn't know what a Heavenly War Spirit was, but it was clearly intelligent and knowledgeable. Abruptly, another surge of mental energies was absorbed, even larger than both times before, exhausting more than a quarter of his reserves.

"Sometimes, the simplest solution to a problem is the only answer needed—Don't overthink." After saying this, the golden egg dimmed considerably, losing a remarkable amount of its shine, and seemed to be reduced to a lesser state than when he had received it.

"..." Wei Wuyin watched as it grew dimmer, his heart feeling a little frustrated.

"Wait!" Wei Wuyin thought, his mental avatar lit with a distinct brilliance of incredible activity. His Sea of Consciousness sank a little, a sign of an outburst of mental exertion.

"You're right! I'm not a Virtue of Dao or whatever, and I've been thinking about this the wrong way!" He rushed forward and gave the golden egg a kiss before his mental avatar dissipated. The Heavenly War Spirit's egg trembled slightly.

Back in the real world, Wei Wuyin gave a bright smile. He said, "I can't save him, but I know who can."

"What?!" The Earthly Saints reacted quite intensely. After all, was Wei Wuyin implying that the King of Everlore himself might do it? Or perhaps the force that the King of Everlore fostered elsewhere?

Wei Wuyin held Ma Zheng's fragile body, meeting his lethargic gaze with his own bright one. "It's up to you…"

He brought out a jade box from his saint ring!