Chapter 1006: The World Between The Fold
Twenty months and a few days prior…
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Karmic Luck Value: 44,834.2 -> 41,555.3.
First Calamity: Survived - 7/7.
Second Calamity: Claimed - 1/1.
Third Calamity: Suppressed - 11 Years.
Engulfed by silvery light, Wei Wuyin's right arm thrummed with pain, his head spun as the Bloodline of Sin rumbled, and Kratos' roar of contemptuous amusement resounded. This Astral Soul of his was about to sever the spatial power emanating from the Celestial Jade Key, ruining Liu Suyin's attempt to bring him away via an abruptly executed art, and freeing him and his subordinates from its effects.
However, the familiar pain caused him to instantly halt Kratos's actions. The world shook. A Karmic Surge! And it was a big one!
As if time had stopped, Wei Wuyin felt as if golden strings representing the Heavenly Daos were twirling around him, working its miraculous means to set up its machinations for his benefit.
How long had it been since Wei Wuyin experienced a Karmic Luck deduction? The last meaningful deduction was the entry into the Battlefield; in hindsight, he certainly took the incorrect path designated within the Heavenly Daos' intentions, entering as a soldier rather than an Alchemist that earned War Souls through selling products.
However, the harvest gained by this 'mistake' was unimaginably great.
The other Karmic Luck deduction from a long time ago wasn't towards himself. It was directed towards one of the Valkyrie, and after entering the summit, he knew it was meant for a certain violet-skinned, golden-eyed, outstandingly fierce woman. She must've gained some amazing fortune during her stay in the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region. Considering she was in the Boundless Martial Sect, a World Sect, while most of the other Ascendants were situated in lesser areas, this highlighted her incredible fortune.
Wei Wuyin felt the Bloodline of Sin's powers taking effect, alerting him to the target and purpose of the Heavenly Daos' developing machinations for his upcoming exploitative fortune.
The Void Voyage Sect!
Wei Wuyin's eyes sparkled with the spiritual light of the Celestial Eyes—Eye of Truth! The unseen truths of the worldly trend began to unfold before him.
An object? A person? A location? Something was extremely beneficial to his cultivation there, a rare find for the Heavenly Daos. The Worldly Trend was changing to accommodate; like observing building blocks get rearranged, Wei Wuyin observed the flow of certain paths ebb and flow, twist and collide, correcting itself to his benefit.
While the Heavenly Daos' intentions and the Worldly Trend were to separate existences, the power of the former can influence the latter.
Suddenly, he felt the silvery light that had encapsulated him, Wu Yu, and Legion Commander Zhan Zheng begin to distort and isolate him from them. Wu Yu was cautiously observing this power, fearless, and he was currently analyzing its weak points to shatter its spatial power without causing a heavy backlash.
"There!" Wu Yu faintly grinned; he lifted his hand and was about to unleash a strike infused with spatial power to sever this sphere's strength, but he felt a firm hand grasp his. Aghast, he felt a supreme Mystic Intent engulf his hand, and like a puppet controlled by a powerful puppeteer, he was pulled and vanished into the walls of the silvery light.
He vanished.
Zhan Zheng's eyes glinted beneath his helmet. He, too, felt the firm hand grasp his own as he was about to instinctively sever the spatial power comprising this silvery spear. The actions of Earthly Saints were too fast for Wei Wuyin to react to, so if they acted out of self-preservation to protect him, Wei Wuyin wouldn't be able to give them orders to stand down.
The Legion Commander mentally sent to Wei Wuyin without a shred of urgency, "An expert is taking action to send your Alchemic Knight and myself into an isolated space of a stasis field—we'll be sealed. Orders?" Legion Commander Zhan Zheng was a diligent warrior, unless it absolutely concerned Wei Wuyin's safety, he wouldn't act against his wishes. Moreover, he was far more knowledgeable of various details about cultivation than Wu Yu, so he knew the whats, whys, and hows of this event.
For example, the firm hand pulled, yet his Mystic War Soul and World War Physique activated in response, hindering it for roughly a second's worth of time. This brief period was enough to do a thousand things with his strength, but he sought Wei Wuyin's confirmation first.
"Stand down and wait for further orders," Wei Wuyin calmly replied.
Zhan Zheng inwardly acknowledged; he no longer resisted as the firm hand pulled him into an isolated space where his various mystic, mental, physical, and spiritual energies were heavily influenced by a terrifyingly powerful temporal field. The Legion Commander specifically kept a portion of his strength sealed, capable of receiving orders from Wei Wuyin, patiently awaiting.
Wei Wuyin soon found himself alone in the blink of a mortal's eye. The separation was almost instant, he stayed within the silver sphere for roughly three minutes, hurtling through fixed space to a vast distance away. This wasn't like his Void Portals, but an advanced version of Spatial Shifting, reminiscent of the Rainbow Bridge that took him to the Battlefield.
'A Karmic Surge of over 3,000? That's the highest Karmic Luck deduction I've ever experienced before.' It would be a lie to say that Wei Wuyin's heart wasn't beating fiercely with anticipation alongside caution.
"I don't like this," Kratos roared. Wei Wuyin felt an urge to roll his eyes. Kratos disliked being passively transported to locations against its will, a matter of innate pride and self-confidence. Unlike the Battlefield, which was their choice, Liu Suyin had decided to forcefully take them elsewhere. Karmic Luck or not, it hated this feeling as a True Void Dragon.
"This is a choice—our choice. We have ten thousand ways to leave should we decide, we're choosing to go," Eden comforted. Kratos mumblingly roared out a few incoherent roars that caused Wei Wuyin's beating heart to throb erratically.
"Take everything! Everything!" Ori expressed its dissatisfaction as well. Kratos' throbbing grew steadily, and it roared out agreeingly. If everything was taken, then it'll barely accept this situation. Barely.
Wei Wuyin wryly smiled in his heart. These Astral Souls of his were aware of his conclusion of Blessed types, including his personally deduced designation as an Exploitative Blessed. Given that 3,000 Karmic Luck was the base, then it was unknown how high the 'potential' gains were.
A deduction of 917.6 translated to the Battlefield, Nexus Battlefield, and all the tremendous gains there. And 210.1 brought him to a rogue planet with peak Terra-Mystic Ore, allowing him to take the entire planet worth an unimaginable amount.
Over 3,000?
He could barely imagine it.
"We'll see," Wei Wuyin could only say this much. Both times where he exploited his fortune to receive an obscene amount required him to navigate against forces far beyond his cultivation base. For 210.1, he had to face three united Mystic Ascendants at the Soul of Mysticism Phase, using Wu Yu as a lure and distraction to steal. For 917.6, he had to face 10,000 Ascended beings…
Since this exploitable fortune was 3,000, what will it involve this time? A Worldly Saint? An army of them?
He inwardly chuckled in his heart, feeling less stressed as the absurdity of it dawned on him.
"..." But his Astral Souls didn't chuckle. Instead, they grew incomparably solemn, no longer as energetically advocating the best harvest. The feeling stifled Wei Wuyin's mind, heart, and body.
"...You don't think?" Wei Wuyin's thoughts went awry.
Just as he was pondering the possibility of facing an Ascended being at those levels, the silver sphere began to rapidly decelerate. Normally, cultivators at his stage would not be able to sense this type of action, but his True Void Dragon Bloodline was highly attuned to the movements of space.
Wei Wuyin felt the sphere come to a complete stop. He adjusted his condition, ensured his clothing wasn't out of place and neat, and realigned his composure. He kept the Nexus War Flag, yet kept his spiritual strength tethered to it at all times.
Regardless of what he would face in this upcoming encounter, he refused to coward away from maximizing his gains. He couldn't help but mindlessly amuse how, if it wasn't for the Temporal Reincarnator arriving, allowing him to feel an incalculable threat from them and a supernatural threat from the Calamity of Hells, he wouldn't have thrived to seek out every benefit possible, including maximizing his foundation at every stage. Instead, he might've rushed to the Realm of Sages at full speed.
He didn't know why, but as the silver sphere dissolved, this thought struck him. It was strange…
When the silver sphere fully dissolved, Wei Wuyin was met with a vast grey sky and clouds of gorgeous silver. It stretched out a seemingly infinite distance, having no beginning and no end. The curvature of the horizon suggested a spherical planet, yet the vastness of the sky felt reminiscent of a flat continental earth's perspective.
As his silver eyes absorbed the majesty of such sights, he realized that there was a single Solar Star in the sky. It was dark grey but emitted soft white light, making it extremely noticeable before the grey sky. The Solar Star had not one, but THREE Mystic Radiance Belts! They moved extremely slowly in his perception, spinning and shifting like a gyro-sphere's external frame, while the Solar Star acted as its spin axis.
He felt a presence beside him. Wei Wuyin turned to see the indifferent expression of Liu Suyin. Despite the eerily uncomfortable expression devoid of any semblance of emotion, Wei Wuyin finally caught a glimpse of a mental fluctuation from her, indicating the emotion of pride and comfort. It was extremely brief but present.
"Where is this?" Wei Wuyin said, looking at the ground. The ground's surface wasn't composed of dirt and greenery but a type of black asphalt as smooth as jade. Just from a slight tap, he realized the material was harder than astral steel of the finest quality.
Liu Suyin indifferently answered: "The World Between the Fold; the land of the Void Voyage Sect. Welcome, destined of the endless voyage."