Chapter 713 - 708: Soldier Of War, Cost Of Admission
WOOOO! WOOOO! WOOOOSH!!!
UUUUUMMMMM!
A gushing cascade of sound alongside deep and loud droning echo accompanies a descending beam of piercing grey light upon a large oval platform constructed from translucent glass! The platform was relatively small, roughly thirty meters in circumference. The grey beam crashed against the glass platform with torrential might, producing raging wind currents and twisting light!
Within this grey beam overtook a few meters of space, and the base of the platform erupted in a brilliant array of white light that formed a unique character! Within this beam was a silhouette. The silhouette was currently in a half-kneeling position, its torso forward, its head downwards, and its two palms pressed against the surface of the platform.
"Ayo! We have another group!" A voice casually yet explosively shouted. It originated from a single figure standing at the edge of the platform, holding a tablet-like item in their left hand and tapping around on its surface with bits of spiritual light on its fingertips.
"Oh?" The figure hummed out curiously. "From the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region? We haven't had a group from here in years, was the sentry still on the lookout?" Another figure, taller, broader, and with a deeper voice arrived with stable steps and a rhythmic gait.
"Grand Cyclic Stellar Region? The sentry shouldn't have been decommissioned, those things almost never are." After answering this, the tall figure stared at the still cascading grey light that produced a turbulent environment.
The other figure tapped away at the tablet some more, "Why is the Stellar Transit Light grey? Is the array malfunctioning due to lack of use? Is this why its so late?"
"…" The tall figure remained silent.
While all this was happening, the beam of light finally ended its torrential arrival alongside the tempestuous and loud sounding environment it created, leaving just a single figure garbed in black to be revealed.
Wei Wuyin was taken off-guard by the two developments, unable to inspect the changes of the 'War' character's transition to 'Annihilation,' and the tainting of the multicolored light that his blood induced. Without warning, the light accelerated by a few hundred times, and he found himself here in a few seconds. During its rapid transit, he found it very difficult to perceive the circumstances with his constantly distorting spiritual sense.
Unable to accurately grasp his situation, he patiently waited until it concluded. With the light disappearing, he found himself on a solid surface once again. However, his body was in a half-kneeling position, and he felt an overbearing weight of gravity press against him. It was at least ten thousand times stronger than anything he'd ever felt normally, excluding his own astral tribulation, feeling taken by surprise.
'Such a strong gravitational force!' Wei Wuyin was awed by this feeling. He contemplated whether he should utilize his own Gravitational Central Mass to off-set the force or use his own physical body to resist. With a faint breath, he decided the latter and lifted himself up forcefully.
His physical body was outrageously powerful, refined to its limits, but due to this, it was also extremely heavy by itself. With a higher gravitational force pressing against him, it required far more physical power to lift himself up and act normally. He had to take a few seconds to acclimate, twisting his limbs and stretching out his legs.
"A single person?" A voice sounded, catching Wei Wuyin's attention. Still keeping his eyes closed, he relied on his spiritual sense to grasp the surroundings. When he finally extended it outwards, he was met with extreme resistance. It was as if a mountain was sitting on every stretch of his spiritual sense, trying to prevent it from moving.
It took tens of thousands of times more spiritual energy to traverse the same distance and grasp the same level of detail. However, his spiritual strength was terrifying to say the least, so after a little adjustment, he instantly engulfed the surroundings of a hundred meters in his spiritual sense.
"Oh? A Spiritualist?" A deep voice sounded out. Wei Wuyin's spiritual sense honed onto it, finding a tall, very tall and broad existence. He was at least seven meters tall, a literal giant that dwarfed Da Shan by over two times in height. Next to that giant of a figure was a smaller one, but still incredibly tall, about five meters in height.
Wei Wuyin would be forced to look up if he was using his eyes to see.
"It's a human?!" The five meter giant exclaimed, clearly quite shocked by the appearance of a human. The giant turned to his taller partner, asking curiously: "Is this a mistake? How can there be only one person, and a human at that?"
The seven meter tall figure furrowed its thick brows, "It doesn't matter."
"It doesn't?"
Wei Wuyin inspected the two figures while they exchanged words. They were both outfitted in heavy armor of exceptional design, seeming like the knights depicted in fairy tales on the Myriad Yore Continent. He always wondered why the Myriad Yore Continent's lore was quite rich, depicting legends and stories far beyond the imagination or limits of its experts.
He mused if there was something there, a greater mystery.
Because these knights' armor looked almost exactly the same, from the roundish pauldrons to the spiked knuckles. While they lacked helmets to conceal their expressions and faces, almost everything else was identical. Subconsciously, he touched his necklace that housed the Myriad Yore Continent in crystallized form.
After the two giants discussed his existence, Wei Wuyin tried to expand his spiritual sense outward. If he was in the Everlore Starfield, at his current level of spiritual energy and strength, he could easily grasp the entire Starfield with relative ease. If he tried to release his spiritual sense to its maximal extent in the Ninestar Starfield, he would still be able to grasp a large portion of whatever domain he was in, yet here, every meter of distance further intensified his consumption of spiritual energy.
He only reached five hundred meters yet only grasped the two giant knights and the glass platform in his spiritual sense. The consumption wasn't too outrageous to him, but he decided not to fully exert his greatest might. If he did, perhaps grasping over a hundred thousand meters in his senses wouldn't be far-fetched.
"Regardless if he's a single person, a human, or a Spiritualist, since he was brought here by the Stellar Transit Light, then the sentry must've selected him due to having the cost of admission," the taller giant firmly said.
It would be best to highlight at this point that Wei Wuyin had absolutely no idea what these two were saying. Their language was entirely different from his own, so he could only gather some clues from body language and vocal tone. Besides some mild shock and surprise, there wasn't much else he understood.
The taller giant walked forward the platform, "Alright! Recruit, listen!" His voice boomed, causing the folds of Wei Wuyin's skin to flap like waves. It was only then that Wei Wuyin realized that this armored giant's aura carried traces of mysticism! He was an Ascended!
Wei Wuyin retracted his spiritual sense from exploring the surroundings and fixated it entirely on the armored giant. He gave off an aura far, far greater than Wu Yu. Wei Wuyin's heart tensed. 'An Earthly Saint?'
Was this a genuine Earthly Saint?!
Wei Wuyin's expression changed as the giant began to speak a series of vocal enunciations that were entirely foreign. After a few seconds in, he interrupted the armored giant even if this might irk or displease him.
"I have no idea what you're trying to say."
The two giants were taken aback for a moment after he spoke. The smaller giant thought for a second and asked with a wisp of genuine confusion, "Do you not understand Mysticism?" These words were spoken in the language that Wei Wuyin understood, that he was incredibly familiar with.
"Understand Mysticism? What is that?" Wei Wuyin didn't know what that meant, was he referring to a language?
The two giants glanced at each other, seemingly confused that Wei Wuyin was unable to understand their previous words. It was only after a few seconds that the smaller giant jolted upwards, asking hastily: "What's your cultivation level?"
This time, he spoke in that strange language again, almost instinctively.
Wei Wuyin frowned, "I can't understand you."
The smaller giant realized his mistake, repeating: "What's your cultivation level?"
Wei Wuyin frowned. Aren't they Ascended? Was he able to hide his cultivation base from them? Furthermore, the taller one's aura was far stronger than Wu Yu's. Was he not an Earthly Saint? It was unbeknownst to Wei Wuyin that his Void Bloodline caused his body to feel like an unfathomable abyss of nothingness to most. Even when he was at the Spatial Resonance Phase, Venerable figures, those genuine Ascended, weren't able to sense his foundation without directly infusing their spiritual sense into his body.
Wei Wuyin didn't hide his cultivation base's aura any longer, deliberately revealing its state at the Sixth Stage of the Astral Core Realm, the Gravity Emission Phase!
The two giants started simultaneously, clearly shocked to their core by this reveal. "Astral Core Realm? Gravity Emission? Such a powerful spiritual strength!" The two exchanged glances, seeing the shock in each other's faces. Yet understanding also flowed within their eyes.
"Is there something wrong?" Wei Wuyin realized that his existence was an anomaly from their expressions and body language, but since it was a karmic encounter from the Heavenly Daos, and requiring less than a Karmic Surge, he felt it shouldn't be too difficult to acquire benefits here. It was just unfortunate that he couldn't understand what they were saying.
"How did you get here? Recruits must have the appropriate tribute to wear the mark," the smaller giant tapped his forehead, speaking once again in Wei Wuyin's understood language.
Wei Wuyin lightly touched the 'Soldier' character on his glabella. It hadn't changed despite the 'War' character changing to 'Annihilation'. Wei Wuyin subconsciously glanced at his palm to notice that there was no longer a mark, not of war nor annihilation. A bout of confusion assaulted his heart for a moment, but he regulated his thoughts.
"What is this tribute?" Wei Wuyin asked.
The taller giant now spoke out, his voice once again booming with a strong, explosively hot air. "The tribute is a unrefined Seed of War. Where is it?" It seemed the taller giant was looking impatient, and his gaze even was a little unfriendly towards Wei Wuyin.
Wei Wuyin's eyes brightened after hearing this. The Mark of War on his palm had reacted to the box of strange material that he obtained from Long Chen's corpse. With a wave of his hand, the box containing it appeared. He wasn't able to deduce what it was, but he had kept it for further research. An object obtained from a Blessed couldn't be insignificant.
The taller giant's eyes lit, and then that unfriendly air vanished abruptly. He waved his hand and the box vanished from Wei Wuyin's hands, appearing in his. With a brief nod after a quick inspection, he gave Wei Wuyin a firm stare reminiscent of a Commanding Officer of a mortal military unit.
"Your tribute is accepted. You're now admitted to the 49th Unit of the Helix-Titan Battalion." After saying this, the tall giant spoke some words to the smaller titan in that strange language called Mysticism, and gave Wei Wuyin a last glance. With a firm gait, he left without looking back.
The smaller giant had a wry smile, a wisp of pity in his eyes as he observed Wei Wuyin.