Chapter 19 - 19: Sin
"Argh!" Wei Wuyin shouted the moment this voice entered his mind. The shout was bestial and filled with desperation and unwillingness, like the last throes of a dying animal.
By this point, all the elders had gathered. Elder Bing had a grave, solemn expression. She was considering if Wei Wuyin was going through a backlash or qi deviation. No one approached because of the latter.
If his qi deviated from standard paths, he could detonate suddenly. As he was in the Fifth Phase, the destruction would take her with him. She didn’t believe she could outrun it if she was close.
The elders were also using their spiritual sense to investigate, but couldn’t determine what was wrong. No one dared to get close.
Dao Shin, with his eyes closed, arrived beside the other members of the Sky Sword Sect. Despite not having his eyes opened, his ’eyes’ were pointed towards Wei Wuyin. "He’s birthed metal and lightning qi? And from two high-level sources." His words were calmer than others.
The middle-aged man turned towards Dao Shin and asked, "Is he undergoing qi deviation or suffering a backlash from a qi method?" With his cultivation base at the Fourth Phase, he didn’t have the spiritual strength to penetrate a Fifth Phase cultivator’s defensive ward.
Dao Shin, however, was different. He had cultivated a unique spiritual spell that made his perception exceptionally piercing.
Dao Shin frowned, "His entire body is going haywire, like he’s simultaneously undergoing a backlash and qi deviation, but no obvious sign of either."
The middle-aged man was shocked after hearing this. That made no sense to him. As he looked at Wei Wuyin, he couldn’t help but think that this boy had a secret.
As if Dao Shin heard his thoughts, he said, "it seems that a treasure inside his body is causing the effect."
When those words were said, everyone became silent. Shu Yin’s eyes grew sharp as she looked at Wei Wuyin.
Jiu Lang had been trying to kill Wei Wuyin for this treasure, but there was never any confirmation if he had one. No one could tell, and everyone just called him talented and an underdog who rose from hardwork and dedication. However, how could that be true?
That treasure had allowed a nobody like Wei Wuyin, who could only start as an honorary disciple, become a core disciple. Now, he was at the Fifth Phase and birthed two high-level elemental qi? If she could obtain it, she had a chance to save her brother’s cultivation future. A faint killing intent emerged in her eyes.
Unfortunately for her, Wei Wuyin did not have any cultivation treasure. He simply had intelligence, willpower, and luck. There was no trick or shortcut that took him from zero to hero.
Gnashing his teeth fiercely, his eyes had already turned bloodshot. Beneath his feet, violet lightning qi formed.
Elemental Lightning Art: Thunder Step!
Boom!!
He took off!
He took off towards that voice echoing in his mind telling him to come, telling him to run. It grew louder and louder, but as it did, the pain became worse. He continuously executed Thunder Step despite its fierce consumption.
Before the others could react, Wei Wuyin was out of sight and spiritual sense range.
Dao Shin looked at the direction Wei Wuyin took off, and his frown deepened.
The middle-aged man took out a transmission crystal and sent a message. Dao Shin stealthily withdrew his transmission crystal and read the message. His frown ceased, and he shook his head.
The middle-aged man sighed inwardly, but didn’t show it on his face.
"We’ll rest, if he doesn’t come back in two days, we’ll continue without him." An Aqua Echo Sect elder said. To her, the mission was more important. Wei Wuyin may be a genius, but he wasn’t their genius. If anything, she wished he’d fall down a pit and die.
If he didn’t have a treasure, then his talent meant he was truly going to become a future Godlord. If that happened, the Scarlet Solaris Sect and Sky Sword Sect may get various ideas towards their Aqua Echo Sect.
Xing Fu went to Elder Bing and cried, "Let’s go after him!" She looked ready to take off, but a cold energy entered her body and sobered her erratic emotions.
"I know you have taken a liking to him, but the current situation he’s going through is volatile. He could explode. If you’re around him when that happens, you’ll die." Elder Bing calmly explained.
Xing Fu paled.
Suddenly, she regretted getting her teacher to invite Wei Wuyin.
-----
An hour later, an exhausted figure covered in dirt and tree leaves stepped into a clearing within the Muu Lake’s forest. This figure was Wei Wuyin.
He tumbled into the clearing and fell to his knees. His qi ward had fizzled out not too long ago as his qi had been reduced to nothing. Besides his powerful body, he had no other means of protection.
The voice had vanished suddenly and so had the pain. He felt relieved as he wanted to just lay down and fall asleep, but his mind knew better. If someone decided to take action against him, he could never wake up.
Pow!
He slapped himself to bring his mind back to an alert state. "Stay awake!" As he told himself this over and over again, he got up and started to slowly trudge forward in hope of a safe location to rest.
"Finally, you’re here." A voice that was incredibly familiar to Wei Wuyin, a voice he’d recognize his entire life at this point! It was the voice in his head. The voice that told him to come and run!
He had come while running.
With blurred vision, he looked towards the origin of the voice. His eyes widened and subconsciously took a step forward. Wait, forward? He meant to take a step backwards!
He tried to step backwards again in retreat, but he took two steps forward. His eyes widened in shock as he witnessed this. With swift thinking, he decided to take a step forward. When he did, he took three steps forward.
Before he could figure out what was happening to his body, a white robe appeared in his vision.
A skeleton.
A pure black skeleton was wearing a white robe. It had a hood and stood with its arms crossed over its chest. Wei Wuyin could even see each tooth clearly.
This was a female skeleton.
He could tell by its bone structure. He had learned a lot about death and killing, including what happens to the body after death and how it decomposes into a skeletal state in certain environments.
There wasn’t an ounce of flesh on this black skeleton, but it gave a physical aura that left him breathless.
"Good. Your mind is telling you to run, but your soul is pushing you forward. Nice soul-body compatibility." The skeleton spoke, but its lips didn’t move. However, the sound definitely came from it.
Wei Wuyin was stunned by her words. Soul? He knew that to establish a Heart of Qi, one needed to merge mind, matter, spirit, and essence. Spirit related to the soul!
"Mhm. Your soul is definitely compatible with your body, even exceeding your mind in authority. Good. Good." The voice was neither male or female, rather ambiguous, but it gave one an exceptionally odd feeling like they were listening to a million year old sage.
Wei Wuyin desperately tried to calm himself down. He stopped moving just a few feet away and looked at the black skeleton.
"What do you want?" He asked. Since he was either going to die or going to live, he may as well act as if he was already safe. He had a feeling that this skeleton could take his life away with a flick.
"Good mental stability. A solid mind, a good soul-body compatibility, but your body is still too garbage." The skeleton appraised, ignoring Wei Wuyin.
"..."
"That’s fine, since you’re one of the forty-nine!" The black skeleton said.
Forty-nine? One of them?
"I can’t stay too long, so I’ll make this quick," The skeleton said.
Wei Wuyin nodded. He didn’t know what was happening, so he followed the flow.
The black skeleton pulled out a clear crystal ball the size of a basketball from nowhere. It was as if it had just appeared into existence. Wei Wuyin hadn’t even sensed a hint of spatial energy used.
"Wei Wuyin, Thief of Sin. You killed an Inheritor of Sin. In the end, he bestowed it to you instead of cursing you. Therefore, you’re now the Inheritor of Sin." As the black skeleton said these confusing words, the crystal ball started to surge with white mist. Soon, images appeared that retold the story of his meeting with the prisoner of the Violet Moon Sect.
At the end, it showed Wei Wuyin beheading him.
The images faded away.
"However, Karmic Luck is not in your worldly path. Your heavenly fate was decided by the actions of others. They accumulated the Sin of Greed with their actions, and the complicit willingness to watch and wait, the Sin of Sloth, produced a rank two calamity."
The images of the crystal ball flashed once again. This time, Wei Wuyin became shocked. The image was of Jiu Lang. She was fighting in the war against the Violet Moon Sect, but she suddenly received a message, broke away, and met a beautiful woman with emerald hair and eyes.
The images flashed quickly. The woman with emerald hair and eyes had been imprisoned and Jiu Lang had stabbed a deep syringe into her heart. She extracted a fluid that looked like liquid emeralds.
"The Sin of Greed," the black skeleton said.
Then, the images flashed into others. Wei Wuyin saw the Ancestral Elder of the Sect, the only Godlord figure of the sect. He was standing near Godlord Lin beside the Haven Heart Monolith. Godlord Lin seemed to have said something that sent the Ancestral Elder into silence.
"The Sin of Sloth," the black skeleton said.
Wei Wuyin felt that, based on the skeleton’s words, the Ancestral Elder was warned of Jiu Lang’s actions but did nothing about it. Which would lead to...
As if reading his mind, the crystal ball shifted images. This time, the images were clearer than before. Wei Wuyin’s eyes widened.
An army of warriors dressed in emerald armor had besieged the Scarlet Solaris Mountain. They encircled it, a giant green dome of energy prevented anything from escaping. The images sped up and Wei Wuyin saw himself.
He was facing a young man wielding a black-colored sword who didn’t wear emerald armor, but a black martial robe. Beside him was Jiu Lang, who looked severely injured and clutched at Wei Wuyin’s sleeve in desperation. Wei Wuyin could see the struggle in his own eyes, but then firm determination replaced it.
He faced this young man with his saber out. With a shout, he released scarlet qi infused with metal and lightning energy. It seemed to be some fascinating and powerful qi art, but Wei Wuyin was shocked.
"I formed a Heart of Scarlet Qi?!" While he was shocked, a grand battle took place.
He clashed with the young man, but in the end, he was bested. The young man came to a severely injured him, and swung his sword. Wei Wuyin grimaced as he almost felt the sword slice through his throat mercilessly.
He died.
The images ended.
"Because of your worldly fate, I had to lure you out of that sect. I abducted tens of thousands to change it, ever so slightly without the Heavenly Daos noticing." The black skeleton said somewhat aggrieved.
"Changed my fate? Lured me? You! You took those people?" He couldn’t help but feel a deep throbbing of his heart, the shock cascading his mind like a violent waterfall.
The black skeleton calmly nodded, "I had to change the blessed fate of tens of thousands to move the fate of one in silence. After I’m done, they’ll be returned."
"You, in the face of a rank two calamity, can not survive. You do not have sufficient karmic luck. You did, but not anymore."
"I did?" Wei Wuyin was confused. The prisoner had talked about karmic luck and karmic sin before, but he found it to be gibberish and nonsense.
The crystal ball flashed once more. It was an image of a younger Wei Wuyin. He had Du Ling in tow as he arrived at the Scarlet Solaris Mountain and was inducted into the sect.
"Karmic Luck expended: 0.1."
Then, he found an essence stone that enabled him to break into the Qi Condensation Realm.
Next, he helped an old retired man on a whim and he turned out to be a blacksmith. The blacksmith decided to put his all into a legacy weapon as a gift, the last weapon he’d ever craft in life. His saber was made and given to him.
Next, he found the Steel Essence Source.
Then, the Three-Point Yin female.
"Karmic Luck expended: 0.3, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8."
"You were born with a 2.2 karmic value. Your current karmic value: 0.3. Requirement to have a chance to survive a rank two calamity: 1.5. To avoid, and have a chance to benefit: 2.2." The black skeleton was nearly mechanical in its words.
Wei Wuyin was dazed. Could things really be quantified as such? Was it that simple? This felt too fake, too unreal.
"Do you understand?" The black skeleton asked.
He had to take several deep breaths. This could all be fake, but for some reason, he knew in his heart that it was true. Even...even his future.
In the end, he nodded.
He became the Inheritor of Sin, forcing this black skeleton to intervene and arrive in the face of an impending calamity. If that was the case, then he can accept it. He didn’t fully understand, but he knew enough.
"What now?" He asked.
The black skeleton looked at him with its hollow eyes. A strange atmospheric change occurred in the air.
"Now, you steal sin from Hell and luck from the Heavens."