Paragon of Sin

The figures numbered three—two men and one woman. They had different attires, yet their closeness suggested a united relationship.

"What the hell happened here?" A brutish, incredibly deep voice spat out. The owner of this gruffly sounding voice belonged to one of the three, a human male with thick eyebrows colored burgundy, with a head full of wild jet-black hair, and a short-sized body. Despite his height being slightly below average for human males, his muscles were defined and exquisitely sculpted to perfection. 

This was especially so for his thighs and arms. They pulsed with masculine power. He gave off a dominating air that could cause weaker men and some women to cower. While he couldn't be considered beautiful or handsome outright, he had a unique charm that was attractive.

"Isn't it clear?" A calm, velvety voice followed. It belonged to the other human male. With chiseled jaws, sharp eyebrows, bright and limpid eyes, and a pair of firm lips, he was exceptionally handsome. His visual age could be as in his early twenties, but those eyes of his contained the heavy vicissitudes of age, creating a strange experienced, mature, yet youthful air around him.

His snow-white hair was tied in a ponytail that reached the midsection of his back, and the hair itself was thick and silky. Those icy-blue eyes allured the senses, and every time they swept about, a feeling of being stripped apart was experienced. 

The woman was average-looking, her features quite ordinary, even her body lacked any noticeable female charm that would attract the eyes of her male counterparts. But she couldn't be described as ugly, having a calm, hard to find in a crowd type of feature. The short black hair that was mostly unstyled, just let freely loose, and her dark eyes supported this. 

"A Shadow Egg? Trueborn?" The ordinary-looking woman asked, her eyes flashed with spiritual light as she observed the semi-melted structure. "There are tens of millions of lives present here. Almost all, if not all, are recovering from a restrained cultivation base." 

Bai Lin had taken it upon herself to unleash her means to burn away certain restrictions. It required an enormous amount of her mental power and bloodline energies to do, but she had done so. This was solely her decision. This was why she was so thoroughly exhausted after returning, feeling almost completely drained.

While she had hid it, she was close to collapse. Her efforts, however, were mostly unnecessary. If she had informed Wei Wuyin prior, he would've told her it wasn't really needed. There was only two outcomes: 

One, the elite experts from that organization arrived and sealed everyone again. This made her efforts useless, and if they were targeted, placed them in a vulnerable position due to her weakened state. 

Two, the elite experts from the Ninestar Starfield will arrive and settle everything. They would likely capture all those freed to interrogate and investigate before releasing them out to their homes or outright killing them to hide their involvement. If they were involved. 

Thus, it was mostly an irrelevant and thankless task. That said, those freed were not thankless. They screamed and hollered out their joy and hastily tried to regain their energies through the ambient energies left within the devastated environment. 

It was the high-level fire cultivators that were capable of leaving before either arrived, heavily due to Bai Lin's actions creating immense fire ambient energies they could absorb and utilize. They escaped with haste by stealing the unharmed Voidships docked. Those low-level fire cultivators could only protect themselves, unable to escape out into the Dark Void unless they were lucky, snagging a seat on the departing Voidships.

"It is them," The white-haired handsome young man said gloomily. Trueborn was a name that no self-respecting Ascended wasn't aware of, being insidiously notorious and dangerous throughout the entire Grand Cyclic Stellar Region. Their operations were varied and downright Evil-centric. There were even some members amongst those in the nine Sainthalls. 

But they were too difficult to pinpoint, to uproot, because no one knew their leader or details about how they operate. Their means of concealment could even evade Highlords, and Earthly Saints might miss them still. Not always, however.

There was once an Earthly Saint hellbent on dealing with Trueborn, finding a Shadow Egg, but the Shadow Egg detonated and heavily injured him. They died a few decades later, succumbing to their injuries that penetrated their soul.

Evil Cultivation Methods weren't outright banned in most starfields, with most being fairly tame in nature. The Foundation Engorging Evil Method held by the precious granddaughter of an Earthly Saint was evidence of this. But Trueborn had no belief of limitations, and due to the sheer number of the population and countless deaths in the starfield, no one could investigate them all or the disappearances.

They were even shielded by the prying eyes of fate wielders, such as Seers and Oracles. While the general usage of Evil Methods wasn't an issue, organized evil associations were. And most were obliterated early on if they overstep, but not Trueborn…

Never Trueborn...

"There are faint traces of Voidships departing here, track them down?" The ordinary-looking woman cautiously asked. Some might say that her question was poorly said. After all, they should be doing their best to investigate all avenues and lock down all escapees. But the two didn't answer.

This was because they felt the pulsing energies and highly refined fire energies in the Dark Void and adhered within the entirety of the Shadow Egg. An elite expert had taken action, directly dealing with this Shadow Egg. They were well-aware of a Shadow Egg's defenses, so only a very powerful Demi-Mortal Lord or an Earthly Saint could deal such devastating damage to it in such a short amount of time.

It would be utterly foolish of them to track that expert down. What if he or she is temperamental? What if their powers had grudges with that expert? Wouldn't they be working themselves recklessly just to die? Unable to confirm where the expert left to or was currently, they wouldn't dare to stretch their hands out further than safely necessary. 

The ordinary-looking woman retracted her gaze, feeling the same as the other two. 

Unbeknownst to them that the Shadow Egg had allowed a trojan horse into its weakest area—inside. Its exceptional defenses turned negligible beneath those powerful flames. Even those from Trueborn were baffled, unable to react in time and dealt a ferocious blow. 

The heavily masculine man of short stature grumbled slightly, "Seal off the area. We'll delve further into this. But I don't think any Trueborn members are left alive."

The white-haired handsome man nodded, "We're clean-up. I don't think any Trueborn Ascended were left alive. There's no Spatial Rupturing signatures here." Spatial Rupturing signatures were forcefully signs left behind by brute forcing Void Portals in spatially protected Starfields. The reason why Wei Wuyin's Void Portals went unnoticed was due to his art, which involved using true Void Energy, producing a genuine Void Portal. That was beyond their means to notice. 

Normal Void Portals used spatial energies, not Void Energies. They were only called Void Portals due to their almost indistinguishable appearance, but they could be described as Lesser Void Portals in comparison to Wei Wuyin's. It was also why Wei Wuyin's Void Portals had two interconnecting Void Portals at both sides, not one.

The ordinary-looking woman pouted with a wisp of annoyance in her eyes, "Some selfish Saint left us with their mess to sort. How expected."

"Venerable Dawntree, you shouldn't make such comments lightly. Haha, never know who's listening." After saying this with a playful smirk, the white-haired handsome man, Venerable Whitespring, shot towards the Shadow Egg. His mystic energies started to surge forth to seal the area.

Venerable Dawntree snorted softly. However, that reminder caused her heart to quiver with fright. If a Saint's spiritual sense truly caught her saying this, a hint of their dissatisfaction might lead to her forfeiting her life. Even if a newly Ascended Highlord was present. She no longer said a word and shot after Venerable Whitespring. 

The obvious leader of the trio, Highlord Si Yang, stayed calm and watched as the duo performed their job. He stayed on alert, his aura seething as a faint warning to observers. However, while he inspected those members and the various tools and formations embedded in the Shadow Egg, his burgundy brows furrowed deeply. 

"This is a Yang Extraction Station, how brutal. If...the little fool saw this, he would certainly go berserk. Heh," as he commented out his thoughts, his eyes twitched slightly. He turned his gaze to find a far, far distance Voidship who left no striation lines in fixed space near him.

It was a Voidship that was either nearby yet never docked in the Shadow Egg, or watched from afar. Maybe it belonged to that Earthly Saint? He didn't believe a Demi-Mortal Lord had the means to destroy a Shadow Egg.

After a brief moment of thought, his eyes sparkled with faint traces of remembrance. "There's a familiar aura there?" Confused, he tried to rack his memories. It was only when he remembered a few years back, just prior to his Third Ascension, when he was just a Venerable level figure, that he obtained a realization. 

"...Wei Wuyin?" A name that shook the entire Grand Cyclic Stellar Region. The Second Chosen of the True Element Sect! And after the rumors leaked by the True Element Sect, likely the youngest Grand Mortal Sovereign Alchemist! The very same one who comprehended the Neo-Dawn Eclipse Pill!

His meaty heart started to faintly race. He felt an urge to travel there, even had his aura pulse slightly, but he halted his step. Wei Wuyin's location had been a long-time unknown curiosity amongst the various forces. Every last expert was trying to locate him, and not even the Golden Gate Pavilion was able to find out his location. 

Yet he was in the Ninestar Starfield?! 

More importantly, he took down a branch of Trueborn?! 

Si Yang didn't dare to carelessly act. He didn't want to meet his end from an overly cautious Earthly Saint that wants to remove all evidence of Wei Wuyin's presence here. However, it makes sense why no one could find him! 

He had an Earthly Saint shielding him! 

After a very long moment, he shook his head. "At least I can tell that little fool about this…" After muttering out these words, he looked at the direction Wei Wuyin left. 

A figure, a mere mortal, that shattered the entire conventions of cultivation was currently in the Ninestar Starfield, located and took down an entire branch of Trueborn that even Earthly Saints had difficulty dealing with. Why was he here? And what type of insane events is about to follow?