Chapter 284 - 281: G.S.T, Hunted
"That bastard! Senior, how is this fair?!" Long Chen cursed, questioning Wu Yu as he dashed through the environment surrounded by sword force. His movement art was exquisite, pushing his speed to an extreme. Unfortunately, his limited cultivation base at the World Sea Phase also limited his speed. Unable to take to the skies, he could only blaze his path on the ground.
The constant impediment of trees forced him to delay as he maneuvered left and right, over and under, and sometimes through. While the snarling shadows behind him never lost his tail. These shadows were led by a young man with scarlet hair and malevolent aura, emanating dense and fathomless murderous intent.
Those snarling shadows reflected the same. With their dark-colored fur-covered bodies, sharp fangs, and piercing claws, they painted a bloodthirsty picture. They were all Shadow Moon Wolves. Numbering three, they had Silver Stars on their foreheads. The trio had relative combat strength at the Soul Idol Phase! As a group, they hunted mercilessly under the explicit orders of the young man.
"...Long Chen..." Wu Yu transmitted his voice through the unassuming black ring that kept his spiritual form. Seeing Long Chen run for his life, spouting about unfairness, he couldn’t help but feel inwardly disappointed. Was this the demeanor of the future Grand Monarch? Where had his against-the-world attitude he had before?
Long Chen clenched his teeth as he pushed his speed to the limits. If it wasn’t for his robust foundation, fleeing from three Silver Starred Beasts would be an impossible feat. That being said, if it was a one versus one fight, he would be fearless and fight with his all.
While Silver Starred Beasts had the practical combat strength of a Soul Idol, this only related to physical attributes and some unique bloodline abilities. When compared to legitimate Soul Idol cultivators, they couldn’t match. These beasts didn’t have control over ambient mana, disallowing flight, or a Soul Idol that amplified one’s spiritual strength when summoned.
"The Trial of Beasts was designed to be used in exactly this manner; there is no unfairness present. The pretense of capture is merely that, a pretense. This is a stage of accumulation, and it’s not just towards Spirit Points, but one’s own force." Wu Yu could only explain this principle. Originally, he wanted Long Chen to come to this conclusion himself, but he was too focused on the surface layer that he missed the world beneath.
Personally, he felt it was insulting when Long Chen spouted unfairness towards the Grand Spirit Trials’ rules. After all, he was the one who had conceived, designed, and refined the Monarch Spirit Trials rules all those years ago.
Long Chen was stunned for a moment, "What? Isn’t joining forces with others just an admission of defeat?" He became confused because of Wu Yu’s non-direct explanation. It wasn’t that he lacked intelligence, merely he remained unwilling to delve further. It was somewhat an unconscious reaction. He was being hunted by his enemy that had perceived the truth earlier than him, so he held some resistance to this.
"...It is. But gathering the Beasts of the trial as your force will only open up new paths, such as a wider breadth of thought towards subordinates. For example..." Wu Yu said. He didn’t need to further explain. Long Chen was being hunted by three Silver Starred Beasts under the command of another. This was a clear example of the possibilities.
If Long Chen turned around and attacked the young man hunting him, he would be eliminated from the trial as a rule breaker. If he attacked and killed the Silver Starred Beasts, he would receive negative points and likely lose qualifications to proceed to the next trial. However, if the Silver Starred Beast killed him, the young man would suffer no penalties whatsoever.
Furthermore, the rule of restricted conflict lightened up in the next trial. Those of a stronger cultivation base could not attack those of lesser cultivation, but beasts were not subjected to this rule. One could eliminate competitors and obtain abundant Spirit Points by targeting weaker individuals using beasts or gaining an advantage against those of a higher or equal cultivation base via numbers. That being said, the advantage was only possible for those with the capabilities.
One had to first suppress and tame the beast to achieve this, otherwise it would never listen due to the Spiritual Spell embedded in the Seas of Consciousness of the various beasts by the Myriad Monarch Sect. The stronger the beast, the harder it was to subdue.
Long Chen finally understood, a wisp of frustration and unwillingness emerged in his heart. If he had known this sooner, he would’ve found some beasts to subjugate. With time, he felt that he could slowly gather a unit of Silver Starred Beasts. In truth, he wasn’t to blame for wasting this much time.
Wei Wuyin, and even Zuhei, hadn’t immediately understood the principles behind the Trial of Beasts. The former only discovered the possibilities after crushing three Golden Starred Beasts and subjugating them on a whim. The rest of the trial’s profundities came naturally after some thought. Before then, most had made the same assumption that this trial was a segway to the next, a mere trial of accumulation of Spirit Points and extra time.
"You’ll exhaust yourself soon! When that time comes, I’ll enjoy watching your corpse be ripped apart!" The young man amplified his voice with spiritual force and sent it outwards. In his heart, he cursed at how swift Long Chen was at running despite his weak cultivation level, but the chase only increased his desire for blood.
The young man was Haungfu Jinwei, the most talented genius of the Haungfu Clan, a clan with the support of Huangfu Wenghu, an Alchemic King and Prime Imperial Sage of the Extreme Creation Mountain. They were a prominent and domineering bunch, having birthed numerous elites and had very deep connections within the sect. Huangfu Jinwei was Huangfu Wenghu’s nephew and the most cherished and talented member of the clan. He was the one who had the highest chance of becoming a Grand Imperial Sage in the future with direct relation to a sitting Grand Imperial Sage.
Despite being only two hundred years old, he was already at the Soul Idol and had formed five rings. With the full support of an Alchemic King and the resources he could provide, Huangfu Jinwei’s talent was thoroughly nurtured to a high peak amongst the geniuses of this era.
A few years back, Long Chen had gotten into a conflict with the Huangfu Clan’s younger generation that spiraled out of control until it caused their most elite genius to take action, building immense enmity that wouldn’t end until one of them was dead. In truth, Huangfu Jinwei didn’t consider Long Chen’s conflict with his clan with any importance. The enmity between them had formed due to the two Earthly Elites, Hong Ru and Xiao Bing, these two beautiful ladies.
For decades, Haungfu Jinwei had pursued them but was met with unclear responses. All of a sudden, Long Chen entered the picture and gained their affection, and this ignited a seed of jealousy that burned until thoughts of murder and hate was formed. Furthermore, all his sneaky attempts to remove Long Chen from the equation had caused him to lose an immense amount of face within his clan.
In the end, the two girls had openly turned against him and even went as far as to declare their disgust towards him and his abhorrent actions under the guise of aloofness and indifference. His inner rage was infinite and without limit, and he could only place all of it onto Long Chen.
If it wasn’t for the restrictive rules against abuse of authority and relative power within the sect, he would’ve long since slain this insignificant insect that was Long Chen. Fortunately, the heavens seemed to have given him a chance. He had found three feral, unrestricted Shadow Moon Wolves while they were resting. Thanks to his preparation and advice from Huangfu Wenghu, he used a sleeping pellet and a beast-taming spell to obtain these beasts with relative ease.
Then, he met Long Chen, and the curtains seemed to be calling for a close as he hunted him down.
While they chased for three hours, within the depths of the earth they traveled was a Titanic Mudworm Snake that had eyes emitting silver brilliance. Far away, nearly an entire hemisphere away, Wei Wuyin was quietly gazing at Junia’s horizon from within his Sky Palace.
"A Sinful Soul?" Wei Wuyin couldn’t help but feel intrigued by this discovery. A Sinful Soul was a term used to describe a person that had committed immense sin against the Three Thousand Commandments of the Heavenly Daos, sin that could not be redeemed. While most sins merely produced a negative luck value that slightly affected their current life towards non-Blessed, this was mostly minor. It was very difficult to accumulate karmic sin while alive unless one purposeful went against it.
The rules were too random and vague, making it very difficult to act against it with any self-conceived rubric of right or wrong. Considering most would be ignorant of it their entire lives, it was only natural. But there were some who sinned an amount that was irredeemable, enough that it caused their very souls to be imbued with karmic sin.
When they died, it would be them who underwent the cruelest punishments of Hell. While most souls would merely experience a light surface cleansing by the means of Hell, those of the Sinful Soul required an intense cleansing that could be likened to the true hellish torture.
"The Soul of True Sin..." Wei Wuyin frowned as he softly mumbled out these five words. The Soul of True Sin was a cultivation method that the Black Skeleton had left him, and it involved using Karmic Sin to cultivate the soul. But Sinful Souls didn’t use sin to cultivate; it simply festered and grew. Furthermore, he could only cultivate this method after attaining the Realm of Sages.
Through the eyes of the Titanic Mudworm Snake, he could see through the world trend that Huangfu Jinwei was an existence the Heavenly Daos wanted. It wanted to punish him. As for why? He could only imagine that his actions weren’t accepted. Perhaps it was his actions of hunting a Blessed or something else entirely?
The only conundrum he had was that he hadn’t felt this sensation before. It was as if he had just performed an action that produced an immense amount of sin. Furthermore, this was getting stronger and stronger as time passed. That was peculiar.
As he continued having the snake follow the two, he noted the three Shadow Moon Wolves. After a brief inspection, his expression turned solemn. They were being subjugated in the strictest way imaginable. "He’s using a taming spell that targets their souls?" He could feel that, while the wolves seemed normal, their souls were dissipating due to a continuously revolving spell. They were like zombies forced to follow his every order.
The dissipation of a soul was an abhorrent offense against the Heavenly Daos, and an affront to its dignity. But this only mattered towards certain souls. It was termed as ’Mortal Souls’ in the commandments within the Scripture of Sin.
"Mortal Souls...could it be souls not in the Mystic Ascendant Realm?" When he thought about the implications of cultivation, the separation of Mortal and Mystic by the Alchemic Dao, and his own comprehension that the Astral Core Realm was the limit of Mortal powers, a literal star, he felt enlightened. The Heavenly Daos protected the souls of the weak.
He felt somewhat conflicted by this. "Where did he obtain such a malicious spell?" The only spell he had come across that affected souls was the Fixed Soul Spell he obtained from Anu, an existence that obviously lived during the height of the King of Everlore’s era, and he still couldn’t execute it yet.
This meant his cultivation base simply wasn’t fundamentally capable. How did Haungfu Jinwei do it?
"It likely has to do with the Soul Idol’s unique abilities," he determined. As for how he obtained this spell, considering Wei Wuyin had come across the True Dragon Transmutation Method and Bloodforging Mystic Method, which had several spells and arts within, he didn’t think it was unlikely. After all, this starfield had Mystic Ascendants of varying races and specialties.
"Oh?" The Titanic Mudworm Snake had paused, noticing that Long Chen and Huangfu Jinwei had ceased their chase above.
After a long-drawn-out chase, Long Chen had met three figures. They were Hong Ru, Xiao Bing, and another female. This female was a beastwoman with feathers, claws, and a lithe figure. She looked like a harpie from legends, and with her sharp ears alluded to her descent from the elven race.
They were startled as they met an exhausted Long Chen being chased by a bloodthirsty Haungfu Jinwei. They seemed to be engaging in conversation.
Wei Wuyin quietly felt a sense of desire to send Huangfu Jinwei along the path of reincarnation, and before that, Hell’s vicious and ruthless punishment. This didn’t originate from his Bloodline of Sin, but the whispers of the Heavenly Daos. If he acted, he felt as if the Heavenly Daos would reward him as a result.
But the whispers of the Heavenly Daos were met with a reaction from the Bloodline of Sin, curving the Heavenly Daos aggression-instilling whispers. While it didn’t directly inform him of its desire, from the depths of his Bloodline of Sin, he felt that Haungfu Jinwei was vital to it.
A Sinful Soul.
An irredeemable Soul infused with Karmic Sin.
Wei Wuyin’s eyes brightened. He knew what he needed to do. Just as he was about to act, he felt an imposing, tyrannical, imperialistic, and invincible aura manifest within the world.