Paragon of Sin

Dzzzzt!

Guan Yu's eyes opened as he looked at the halo quiver and rise, revealing the figure of Wei Wuyin in all his pure white-dressed, extremely handsome-faced, and closed-eyed glory. Guan Yu was interested in what Wei Wuyin purchased with his War Souls. He hurriedly rose and walked over, about to ask this question. 

"How many Soldiers of War have you killed?" Wei Wuyin interrupted his curious approach with this direct question. This startled Guan Yu. Then, his expression shifted with a trace of fear. 

"I'm not like that woman. I give my enemies the honor of a swift death, if possible. If...if you want my War Souls, I can give the excess and help you gather more!" Guan Yu hastily said, fearful that Wei Wuyin was about to act against him out of greed. Considering that Wei Wuyin had just been to the War Soul Exchange, he must've sensed how incredible those items were. 

He gulped heavily, halting his steps and slowly moving to a defensive posture. If Wei Wuyin struck, he was fully intending to run to the edges of the Nexus Battlefield with all his might and escape.

"Just answer the question," Wei Wuyin said with a soft sigh. This Guan Yu was both brave and a coward, perhaps he was just practical and understood his circumstances, but it was still quite a character flaw. 

Guan Yu went silent for a brief moment, then answered hesitantly: "I killed th-"

"Don't lie to me," Wei Wuyin abruptly added, his tone becoming glacial. 

Guan Yu's heart raced and his blood felt as if he was being eyed by a beast, a judge deciding his life or death. If he decided to lie, he might forfeit his life entirely. With another heavy gulp, he took a deep breath and calmly said: "Nine. I've killed Nine." 

Wei Wuyin looked at Guan Yu. This Guan Yu was marked for death already, so meeting Jing Jiu was just a quicker end. Who knew how many lives he'd taken if he wasn't placed on Jing Jiu's path? Furthermore, to accrue a sinful aura, what other despicable acts he must've done? 

"I won't lie to you; you're marked for death. You've reached the maximum limit of kills before the Nexus Battlefield's War Spirit executes you for your crimes against your allies." Wei Wuyin didn't hold the truth back. 

"WHAT?!" Guan Yu was caught off-guard. His first response was denial, "Impossible! Where are you getting this information? Do you think that...my clan has known about the Nexus Battlefield far longer than you ever have! Execution? Ha! If you want to use an excuse...if…" Guan Yu shouted and shouted, but Wei Wuyin just faced him with a neutral expression. The more he spoke, the more Wei Wuyin's face remained unchanged, the more Guan Yu became unsettled.

"No, no, no. It's not possible. People have killed far more than me, yeah. Yeah, way more. And what allies? Each one of these people are my enemy! That...wom-woman, if you can call her one, was certainly not my ally! She would've killed us if we hadn't...if you hadn't…" Yet the more he spoke, the more his mind slowly processed the situation. All the thoughts Wei Wuyin had, all the knowledge of the Nexus Battlefield that he had Guan Yu had it too.

The most crucial of which was: "The purpose of the Nexus Battlefield." 

"NO! No…" Guan Yu's stance lowered, his eyes became dazed, and his expression slacked.

He realized it.

Wei Wuyin heavily sighed in his heart. He knew this feeling all too well, and it had shattered his Heart of Cultivation. The Calamities of Hell was a force he felt he was unable to fight against and he knew his life was going to end. How could a mere mortal survive the trials and tribulations of Hell? The cleansing power of the Heavenly Daos? 

Guan Yu did not have the power to resist the War Spirit or the strange forces of this world; his life was forfeit. The Heavenly Daos knew it, the War Spirit knew it, Wei Wuyin knew it, and now Guan Yu knew it. 

Wei Wuyin let the realization settle in, focusing on the Myriad Gravestone Poison in the spatial ring. Even when Guan Yu spoke the words to leave, arriving at the War Soul Exchange, likely to question the War Spirit, Wei Wuyin kept making his preparations. 

  The Myriad Gravestone Poison could be considered a peak astral-grade poisonous fluid that was airborne. It was colorless, traceless, avoided spiritual sense, and can adhere to energies to infect a cultivator. When he first smelled the floral fragrance, he knew it was poison. It had invaded his body and tried to exert its toxic effects, but Kratos was actively aware of every cell and particle in his body.

Before he could experience the effects, Kratos had already started gathering the poison as it entered his body, isolating and accumulating it in a small and spatially isolated location. 

The reason he decided to walk towards their battle was to discover its source. Because after a brief inspection, he learned that this poison was a weakening agent for innate energies, affecting all four types eventually—Physical, Mental, Essence, and Spiritual. 

It was parasitic in nature, devouring these energies and strengthening itself. It was also very, very difficult to isolate using normal means, because it ate at the four types of essential energies of a cultivator. 

At first, he thought this was Jing Jiu's lucky chance, a way for a mortal to obtain the right to observe the Obelisk of War, but he was wrong. Jing Jiu's fortune was War Souls and Sky-World Lightning Essence in that woman's possession. All to prepare him to ascend to the next realm in his potential peak state. The Heavenly Daos were too kind.

And it seemed that he was right to come to that conclusion, because this poison wouldn't affect Ascended beings, because it eats at four types of energies, yet Ascended grasped a fifth—Mystic Energy. Without that, they could easily expel this poison upon noticing it, because it was just a weakening agent.

That said, it didn't mean there wasn't a way. During his experimentation with transcendent products, specifically refining mystic-graded materials into mortal-graded materials, he discovered a very interesting detail regarding this process. While he still couldn't actively refine them into pills, elixirs, and paste, because they needed continuous processing of the Seven Aspects of the Alchemic Dao.

But pellets were far, far simpler despite needing the same.

Because it just required the extraction and infusion of the material's essence and energies into a single whole, carefully balanced and sealed. While he wasn't able to sense mystic-graded materials' essence and energies, that didn't mean he couldn't introduce the entire thing into the eventual product and hope for the best.

It was crude. Incredibly raw and unrefined. In fact, it wouldn't even allow him to successfully concoct a product in accordance with the Alchemic Dao. The eventual pellet would just be a strange mixture of materials without much elegance, just raw chemical reactions, like mixing dried milk with water. That wasn't remotely close to being alchemy.

Shortly after personally meeting the poisonous woman, Wei Wuyin had an ingenious thought after Eden was capable of inspecting its contents and essential composition. With that, he recalled all the mystic-graded materials he obtained from Cai Liuyang's possession. Fortunately, she was quite detailed and kept all her materials organized and named, including listing their effects in various jade boxes. 

With roughly forty different mortal-graded materials including a single petal of the World Devouring Rose, a mystic-graded material, he refined the Myriad Gravestone Poison once again, and concocted himself strange, raw-type of poison! 

This poison was what he used on the woman, and all her energies, lifeforce, and Sea of Consciousness was being devoured to fuel its toxic weakening power. She was too weak to resist, so her life was slowly going to an end. While it wasn't close to being at its full potential due to the lack of proper refinement, it was enough.

The World Devouring Rose wasn't a poisonous material, but it had the effect of absorbing every type of energy source in the world, including mystic energies and blooming into a unique flower with a specific affinity. At its base form, it was a high-grade Mystic-Earth material. But if one feeds it pure fire energies, it'll eventually become a World Flame Rose, a peak-grade Mystic-Earth material, and suitable to be used for cultivation or alchemical concoction. 

And win!

But only the opportunity to fight, not a guarantee for victory. That part was going to be a little risky and...brutal to achieve.

Dzzzzt!

Guan Yu returned. His expression was extremely dazed, his eyes glossed over in defeat and weakness, and he seemed to have aged ten years. He didn't try to speak or move, just fell flatly to the ground with a soft thud, looking at the sky. 

Wei Wuyin looked at his dejected form. The thought of killing him for Karmic Luck was faintly wiggling in his mind. Yet, in the end, he decided against it. 

"There is a way for you to survive." Like a devilish existence promising endless riches and immortality, Wei Wuyin spoke those eight words that drenched one with dėsɨrė and hope. To the desperate, it was like golden honey no matter how it was said.

Guan Yu's eyes immediately cleared, his head turning to Wei Wuyin with flickering hope. If there was any chance, he'd grasp it no matter what!