Chapter 183 - 181: Reputation
Wei Wuyin stared at Su Mei with a wisp of disbelief, but those eyes of hers seemed to lack the turbidity of a lie or joke. Only then did he realize her words were the honest truth. His left, right, and even the eyelids of his invisible Mind's Eye twitched.
"...Why?" He asked this question, but inside, he groaned as he already knew the answer. He had nearly forgotten who he was for a moment. With his current status, his reputation and influence was at an all-time high. Wife? There was a time where he did offer to accept Na Xinyi as his wife, but…
Su Mei seemed to realize that Wei Wuyin was processing this matter a little slowly and she explained, "According to my sources, when she made that declaration, the guillotine that was about to slice into Qing Qiumu's neck was shattered by the Captain-class Knight of Enforcement on site, Bei Ming, and they halted their actions immediately as they investigated the validity of her statement."
Deeply sighing, Wei Wuyin reluctantly conveyed that he understood with a wisp of helplessness in his expression. Qing Qiumu's death was all but guaranteed, and he was right; she should've been executed by the time he heard this news. However, her words provoked an insane and sporadic pause because of who he was.
Alchemic King.
Younger than fifty.
Heavenly King.
The 'widely assumed' Prince of Everlore.
He had the full backing of the sect, the Grand Imperial Sage, and a boundless future on the horizon. While abuse of authority and unsanctioned murder against fellow disciples was accompanied by ruthless punishment, the sect wasn't beyond being corrupt or turning the other way for the sake of its benefits. Furthermore, there were numerous rules that allowed him to make any suffer consequences for offending him, perhaps even pushing them to their deaths.
Kill his wife?
It'd be lucky if they didn't kneel before her in an attempt to get into his good graces. In fact, they might directly give her apologies and beg for forgiveness. How crazy was this?! But, it was the inherent truth of reputation, status, influence, power, and wealth.
For a moment, an impulse to simply make a statement that he had no wives or fiancees at the moment was pounding his heart. However, in the end, he wasn't one to go against his word when he said it. That was a slippery slope that would start to attack his personal principles and morals as a person, principles and morals taught to him by his older brother and parents.
Disregard them? Impossible.
If he could meet them in the afterlife one day, he wouldn't be able to stand before them, and that wasn't something he was willing to experience.
Su Mei slightly pouted her lips. 'When he originally offered, she hesitated, but to save the skin of others, and after he reached such extraordinary heights, she goes and does this?' She felt nothing but disdain and contempt for Na Xinyi's actions in her heart. It stank of desperation and seeking advantages at a timely manner. If she was Wei Wuyin, she would've ignored such an opportunistic and indecisive woman.
Wei Wuyin spent a few minutes thinking about this entire situation with leveled breaths. In the end, he couldn't brush this aside no matter how much he wanted to, but he was quite wary of having beauties that were designated by the Heavenly Daos. They seemed to be magnets for misfortune and leeches of Karmic Luck. After all, overcoming a calamity required a sufficient amount of luck to achieve, and benefiting similarly required value.
Lin Ziyan's entire timeline thus far had been one rife with misfortune and calamity. It was quite impressive really. She must be something special to be given such treatment.
He didn't know the exact details of what Ji Yin did, but perhaps she was crippled? Perhaps she was raped? Even Su Mei didn't know the exact details, because the reporting parties considered her inconsequential and mostly irrelevant.
"He really obtained two new girls? Who are they?" Wei Wuyin asked casually as he got undressed, removing his robe designed for casualwear and directly putting on his black Heavenly King attire. Immediately, his aura underwent a massive change as a sense of imposing authority and wealth radiated from his entire body.
This outfit was a third-grade Astral Armament, and even experts at Third Stage of the Astral Core Realm would have difficulties damaging it.
Su Mei nodded, seemingly unaffected by Wei Wuyin undressing in front of her. "Xiao Bing, an Earthly Elite disciple from the Elemental Origin Mountain, and an ice cultivator. Hong Ru, similarly of the Elemental Origin Mountain and an Earthly Elite Disciple, and fire cultivator. They both have Earthly General-level backings and belong to large clans. According to the reports, they both pressured the Ji Clan to ensure no Astral Core Realm expert acted against Long Chen. This was the reason why he was spared from joining a faction or killed outside the sect."
"Ah," Wei Wuyin walked out of the Alchemic Lab and proceeded to exit his sky palace, with Su Mei directly behind him. "Guess it makes sense. If he joined a faction, while he might be protected, with the Power of Absolute Authority taken into consideration, there might be faction leaders willing to act in their own interests and give him up to the Ji Clan or other clans he offended." Calmly commenting, Wei Wuyin whistled.
Fweet!
Those a part of a Faction had to obey their Faction Leaders to the utmost, and they were intentionally the true definition of subordinates.
"Oh, how's Zuhei? Did he complete his assignment?" Wei Wuyin stretched his arms a little, feeling a little stiff. Those two girls were quite intense and exhausted him quite thoroughly. A slight grin tugged at his lips as he recalled last night's event.
"Zuhei succeeded two months ago. He's currently recuperating and preparing to leave for the Bloodforge Continent, as you've asked."
"Mhm." Wei Wuyin did a little more stretching as he realized that with the awakening of his Draconic Void Natal Soul, he could finally tackle the Astral Tribulation and assail into the realm. After obtaining Astral Force, wouldn't an entirely new realm of power and ability be at his fingertips? Particularly, Alchemic-type Astral Force which vastly improved concoction level, quality, and refinement speed. It was this power that allowed non-Alchemic Natal Soul wielders to become King and Emperor Alchemists.
'Would I become a Mortal Sovereign Alchemist after?' He jokingly laughed in his heart as he thought this. Mortal Sovereign Alchemist? That was a level that only the King of Everlore reached in the last several thousand years, and he had an Alchemi...c...Astr...al...Soul…
His eyes slightly widened with a light of realization!
If he could overcome the Astral Tribulation with his Alchemic Eden Natal Soul, then it would allow him to have the qualifications to reach the peak of the Mortal-Rank for Alchemists! Perhaps he would truly become the next King of Everlore then.
Woosh!
As his storm of thoughts raged, a large shadow shot into the sky. A bellowing neigh accompanied this sound as the shadow descended before Wei Wuyin. A surge and uplift of wind caused their robes to flutter wildly.
Wei Wuyin smilingly regarded the black shadow, which was a winged pegasus. This was the young pegasus that Wei Wuyin had received when he arrived, but it was no longer pure white, and had black stripes streaking across its body like lightning bolts. Beneath its feat, faint crackling sounds emitted that tingled the senses.
It was no longer sixty-meters, and had grown another twenty meters. Furthermore, its eyes flickered with black-colored lightning and its every breath caused various strands of electricity to flow outwards and cling to the air before dissipating.
The pegasus was no longer a Sky Pegasus. With a few seventh-grade, top-tier Thunder Blood Pills, Wei Wuyin followed Bo Kay's advice and awakened its latent bloodline. Not only did its size rapidly grow, but it could now harness the forces of lightning and thunder. Its raw flight speed could be said to reach levels that even some middle-phase experts would find difficult to catch up to. As for its combat abilities? He didn't think any Astral Core Realm expert at the second stage or lower would be its match.
Su Mei stepped forward, "Xiao Bai!" When she spoke, the Sky Thunder Pegasus joyfully nickered, lowering its large head as it allowed Su Mei to caress it.
Wei Wuyin shook his head. This name was coined by Bai Lin, and its meaning was very clear. While she was the boss, he would always be below her in the pecking order. However, her mischievous nature aside, the name stuck and Xiao Bai similarly had no objections.
Su Mei has been using this pegasus actively for the last three years and have thoroughly tamed it. It reeked of loyalty and honest affection. In truth, it was probably all the alchemical paste, elixirs, and pills he fed it with Su Mei as a proxy.
With a jump, they both leapt on the broad back of Xiao Bai. Su Mei took the leading seat, clearly acting as Wei Wuyin's chauffeur for this pegasus express.
Boom!
Woosh!
A thunderous boom followed by the slicing of the wind resounded as Xiao Bai took off, looking like a black lightning bolt as it circled a bit to gain speed. Just as it was about to descend, a hundred meter sized pegasus pierced through the Sky Layer below. A figure riding this pegasus exclaimed in intense shock. After a sweep of its spiritual sense, it hurriedly called out: "Heavenly King Wei!"
Su Mei swiftly gave the order to Xiao Bai to halt, and Wei Wuyin got a look at the new arrival. His eyes lit up as he realized that, regardless if he went down or not, someone would arrive to inform him of this matter to validate it.
And it was someone he was familiar with.
When he first arrived as a Sky Noble, this man had arrived.
Zhao Yan, Vice-Commander of the Knights of Enforcement.
He was a tall, brawny, dark-skinned, middle-aged human male with an unshaven face and usually sported a stoic expression. However, now his eyes were fixated on Xiao Bai. "You awakened its Sky Thunder Bloodline?!" His voice trembled slightly as he spoke. In fact, the pegasus below him that was larger yet pure white with faint traces of jade light at its wings revealed a clear and dense amount of envy and jealousy.
It was a fully-matured pegasus, yet this barely aged, barely off its mother's tit little colt awakened its bloodline! It had an urge to stomp its prideful little head.
...Wait.
Was it smiling at it? Was it smiling with pride and arrogance?! It just neighed with disdain, how brazen!
While Xiao Bai truly did those things, before the adult pegasus could teach the young colt a lesson, Zhao Yan sent a spiritual message that caused its stomach to turn. It was simply: "You're not its match."
It could only accept this, and blow vast amounts of wind through its nose. A Sky Thunder Pegasus versus normal Sky Pegasus was a predetermined outcome regardless of the age difference.
"I was lucky to concoct a few Thunder Blood Pills," Wei Wuyin casually remarked. But this casual remark shook Zhao Yan's heart to the utmost limits and it nearly stopped! Lucky? Lucky?! That was a seventh-grade, peak-tier pill!
He had to take several breaths to stabilize his emotions, but he similarly felt pleasant in making relations early on with this monstrous genius. Others deemed him a fool for lowering his status to establish relations with a non-official Alchemic King. After all, Wei Wuyin was merely a fledgling in terms of age and experience. A potential to concoct seventh-grade products didn't mean he would become an Alchemic King in the next three or four hundred years!
It was a reckless investment they said!
Yet, here he was. From the beginning, he formed relations with this young man and was already thoroughly rewarded. Especially regarding the Zuhei Recruiting incident. The amount of sixth and seventh-grade products he received was mouthwatering, and he had no sadness for trading a crippled prisoner for this.
Even today, his cultivation base has advanced more in three years than it would've in thirty.
Wei Wuyin could see Zhao Yan was losing himself in his thoughts as he asked, "Vice-Commander Zhao, what brings you here?"
Zhao Yan snapped back to reality and his expression became solemn and dignified. After all, this matter was rather sensitive, and the Wei Wuyin today was no longer the Wei Wuyin before. Even he had to step on his tip-toes to avoid offending him.
After all, he was merely an Astral Core Realm expert at the Fourth Stage, the Spatial Resonance Phase. With Wei Wuyin's potential, influence, and wealth, it wouldn't be hard to have him lose his position.
"Heavenly King Wei, it's like this…" He proceeded to once more retell the events, but this time, something even Su Mei wasn't clear on, Zhao Yan was thorough. For example, Lin Ziyan's fate wasn't one where she was physically violated, but her primal yin essence were completely extracted, her cultivation was crippled, and she experienced a severe shock to her sea of consciousness.
All in all, she was crippled in cultivation, body, and mind. Without her primal yin essence, she couldn't generate anymore yin energies and she'll slowly decay as a woman. In fact, she couldn't have kids any longer, and her ability to formulate new memories, thoughts, and control her body would be severely affected.
Wei Wuyin clicked his tongue lightly. Quite brutal. However, Su Mei was straight-faced and entirely apathetic despite being a woman.
Seeing the lack of raging emotions when Zhao Yan spoke of events caused his heart to relax. The incident of the Grand Axis Faction was still fresh in his mind. In the span of a few hours, various clans, forces, and a Sky Noble was uprooted and obliterated.
"I'm here to ask the validity of the young woman's, Na Xinyi, claims that she is your wife, and so is Qing Qiumu, the one to be executed." At this point, he was thoroughly relaxed.
"She's not my wife," Wei Wuyin answered. Zhao Yan's heart truly lost all its tension at this moment. A wave of euphoric relief surged through his body. Unfortunately, that wave ceased with the utterance of a single word.
"Yet."