Six times.
A total of six times that Wei Wuyin had executed the Eyes of Fated Avoidance, effectively justifying the name by avoiding six gruesomely bleak deaths. By now, due to the memory extraction portion of the art, Wei Wuyin became acutely aware of his inner heart demons and deepest regrets. The forced self-inspection facing the precipice of death six times brought unimaginable clarity.
Alas, Wei Wuyin was unable to solve the puzzle of his inevitable defeat as his Bloodline Source had exhausted itself, forcefully causing the canceling of his Draconic Transformation. The third time he had adapted his strategy, layering a secondary explosion to the seal. After Highlord Bluecloud escaped in his Demi-Mystic State, the seal would forcefully detonate as he used Kun Yiming as the shield against the first spiritual attack.
But with the power granted by the Demi-Mystic State, the tolerance and resilience levels were monstrous, completely heart-despairing as Highlord Bluecloud pushed through both layers, launching a second strike.
During the fourth time, he had performed a feint to avoid the incoming second spiritual attack and after dodging sword art from Venerable Slayingsword using a Void Portal, Highlord Bluecloud had somehow emerged behind him, and he found his body exploding into mist soon after. The same expression of horrified disbelief as before was on Highlord Bluecloud's blue-skinned face.
They all expected that, at the critical moment, an Earthly Saint would swoop in and save Wei Wuyin from any lethal damage, so they held nothing back in their attacks. This was the stage he set, but seeing how ruthless they were, he was unable to conjure any happiness.
The fifth time he used the Fixed Soul Spell, but despite his vast, domineeringly powerful Spiritual Strength, his spiritual energy was intrinsically of the Mortal Dao, and thus was ineffective against the Mystic Ascendant Realm whose Existential Framework was evolved by the Mystic Dao, unable to affect their souls. The limitations of being a Mortal were abundantly clear to him, fair and frustrating.
Despite his cultivation foundation being transcendent, despite resorting to precision tactics, resorting to various arts, spells, and advantages of his foundation, he was unable to stop the three from claiming his life.
The last time, his sixth iteration, was abnormally intense. Wei Wuyin had decided to resort to his raw cultivation might, using his Elemental Heart Intent, Minor Time Law, and Astral Core Ignition, his power reached a terrifying level, and he instantly struck at Kun Yiming and simultaneously sealed Highlord Bluecloud.
Kun Yiming was stunned; she retreated but was met with everything Wei Wuyin had to offer, and he crushed her entirely, shattering her Sea of Consciousness, Physique, and Mystic Soul in one domineering strike. She died.
Then, he sent nine Origin Dragons towards Venerable Slayingsword. Promptly, he detonated all nine just as he was about to attack, predicting his movements to the exact millisecond, and as he exited the barrier to strike, the nine Origin Dragons came out of a Void Portal and exploded in his face.
Wei Wuyin was then met by a wave of Spiritual Power, instantly throwing him off balance, yet when Highlord Bluecloud escaped the seal in his Demi-Mystic State, he discovered that the Wei Wuyin that he had attacked began to dissipate, revealing itself as a False God Avatar. His next move shook Wei Wuyin as he used Temporal Reversion, bringing Kun Yiming back, and then rushed toward his original body.
At this point, Wei Wuyin was met by a world-sealing pressure as Venerable Slayingsword, injured as he was, used his Sword Heart Intent and enveloped him in a mixture of World Pressure and Sword Energy. Resisting this pressure, Highlord Bluecloud moved like lightning alongside a Mystic Core igniting Kun Yiming, and Wei Wuyin only felt his body explode once again.
Despite using everything he had with precision planning, speed, exquisitely performed feints, and perfect decoys, Wei Wuyin died.
He died.
Again.
A particular phrase emerged in his mind as he returned:
Before absolute strength, everything else was dust in the wind.
While fighting a Soul of Mysticism Phase cultivator was within his means, even killing one, a Demi-Mortal Lord was too much for the current him, allowing him to accurately gauge his current limitations.
Of course, if the world knew that Wei Wuyin was dissatisfied with this, a mere mortal at the Temporal Eye Phase, having the strength to kill a Soul of Mysticism Phase cultivator, there would be endless wails of despair and bleeding hearts. Additionally, Wei Wuyin was using purely his own cultivated power, no talismans, armaments, pellets, or formations—just raw cultivated strength.
If heaven-defying was in the dictionary, this would be the example.
It might just have written beneath it as the definition: Wei Wuyin, age sixty-eight.
"ARE YOU DONE?!" Kratos' enraged roar resounded in Wei Wuyin's heart. Wei Wuyin couldn't help but form a wry smile. The True Void Dragon was teeming with complaints, not due to exhausting his Bloodline Source, but…
"I don't think this is fair," King, shockingly, spoke out its point of view. As an Omega Saber Astral Soul, it was meant for combat, and out of all four Astral Souls, he possessed the most lethal offensive power, yet Wei Wuyin hadn't unsheathed him throughout this fight. Not even his Saber Intent was used.
The primary sources of power were Kratos and Ori, and even the Eyes of Fated Avoidance Spiritual Art relied on Eden and Kratos, and that excluded him from all aspects of this battle.
"..." Wei Wuyin was silent.
"Just kill them!" Kratos roared disgruntledly.
"We're using a blunted knife to chop vegetables, while capable of doing the job, it isn't nearly as effective." Eden reasoned as it similarly agreed with Kratos.
Wei Wuyin frowned. "All of you agreed that we wouldn't use it in this fight." This was the agreement that they settled on, having Ori and Kratos act as the primary forms of power. In truth, Ori was powerful, but her strength suited fighting against numbers and widespread destruction, that's where the volatile elements shone the most.
It's why the elements were heavily involved in the Dao of War, capable of resonating with the Essence of War to form his robes. The environment was deadly to any army.
As for Kratos, it was a True Void Dragon, while it provided outrageous physical might, the core strength of a True Void Dragon lay in its manipulation of space, time, astrological forces, and Void Energy. Essentially, the Dao of Void. Kratos could escape from the Everlore Association's Mystic Array that Earthly Saints couldn't escape, avoiding the tracking senses of Earthly and Worldly Saints in optimal circumstances. In fact, most applications of space focused on sealing, creation, distortion, or shifting, and time focused on confusion, disruption, perception, acceleration, and insight.
It wasn't a battle-focused power.
"..." Ori was uncharacteristically silent. But like its siblings, it understood that its power, while it could be used for everything, couldn't rival its siblings' field of specialty. King had a higher single-target lethality; Eden had better creation and refinement abilities; Kratos was uncontainable and stealthy.
She could burn, shock, explode, destroy, drown, freeze, collapse, seal, conceal, heal, grow, slice, erode, refine…pretty much everything that the elements can do. But Ori didn't have an inferiority complex by any means, knowing that it had its own advantages that the others couldn't hope to compete in, such as creation.
Out of the four, it was the only one that can create a self-sustaining ecological system and a perfect planet within the Mortal Dao. It could conjure natural-born Solar Stars under the heavens, essentially capable of making its own starfield.
"That was before you were getting our asses kicked!" Kratos unapologetically shouted. It was thoroughly angered by the results of experiencing six deaths, especially after seeing how tyrannical a Demi-Mystic State was, it refused to simply admit defeat facing this seemingly invincible power.
"..." Wei Wuyin felt a little bitter in his heart. This was their choice too. Why was it all on him all of a sudden?
"We're supposed to be testing our limits; the Third Calamity of Hell is coming in a year, so we have to know what we can do." Eden once again was the voice of reason, trying to calm down all sides by justifying their past decision while supporting a new one.
The limits of Ori were clear here, and Kratos' strength wasn't derived from standing and fighting in such a direct manner, while Eden was an Alchemic Soul that contained the profoundness of the Mind Dao—King was all that remained.
"I know what you're worried about," Kratos' voice calmed, growing slightly softer with each word as if he was about to bestow some understanding words, but then he violently roared out and caused Wei Wuyin's soul to shake: "BUT WE DON'T CARE! JUST FUCKING KILL THEM!!!"
The rage from dying six times was having a heavy emotional impact, and Wei Wuyin could only sigh in understanding in his heart. Kratos had never been so irritated and belligerent before. Kratos' pride and belief in itself as a True Void Dragon wasn't being harmed by these deaths, but the feeling of watching his siblings die was too painful.
Wei Wuyin could only relent.
"Tch!" King's excitement leaked.
He looked at the closed-eyed Highlord Bluecloud, turned to see the meditating Venerable Slayingsword, and then his gaze shifted to the hidden Kun Yiming, whose expression drastically changed as she realized she had been discovered. In her panic, she revealed herself, her eyes flashing with intense light.
This disturbed Highlord Bluecloud out of his refinement, and he realized that Wei Wuyin had discovered their planned ambush, and he couldn't help but sigh. Despite their double-layered concealing efforts, this mortal still found her. Terrifying. Wei Wuyin was definitely the most outstanding mortal in the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region. He once again reaffirmed his decision to use his Demi-Mystic State to deal a critical blow. If this was delayed, the chances of something happening were increasingly likely.
Wei Wuyin pressed his hand against his chest. The ten Origin Dragons flew towards him, entering his body through various angles, vanishing almost instantly. All their contained astral force funneled into King, replenishing it within a few blinks of a mortal's eye.
The tension grew.
Wei Wuyin held out his right hand, and then with a soft breath, his silver eyes flashed with saber light.
ELEMENT!
Wei Wuyin called forth as he withdrew his fully sheathed Essence of War manifested saber that Element, his Nascent Saber Soul, had possessed. Shortly before Wu Yu's Earthly Ascension via serendipitous enlightenment of Awakened Mystic Intent, Wei Wuyin had refined Element into a Level Two Nascent Saber Soul using 100 War Souls and forty days of continuous refinement.
That was over a decade ago.
SHIIING!
A saber howl resounded, but the Dark Void didn't tremble. It didn't shake, rumble, or howl. None of that. The fixed space of the Dark Void, the Chaos Mana within it, all the ambient energies and essence floating about for a million miles, all ceased motion.
Fear.
Respect.
The arrival of an Apex Predator—this was how it felt.
"Element, are you ready?" Wei Wuyin softly whispered, gently grasping the hilt of the saber.
SHIIING!!!
A sonorous saber howl was its reply. A saber howl that originated from a Level Three Nascent Saber Soul!