Chapter 657 - 652: Karmic Detour
210.1?
'At a time like this?' Wei Wuyin was briefly stunned. The familiar sting of the Heavenly Daos influence at the back of his head and arm struck again, his eyes brightening with an iridescent radiance as a result. The light was complex as his Celestial Eyes were fully invoked, even using the Eye of Truth and his own spiritual senses to observe the world's trend and surroundings.
When he did, his pupils shrunk slightly as he realized his Void Portal's lock had yet to complete. The Heavenly Daos influence was slight, incredibly subtle, but he felt a desire to make just a very, very minor alteration in the Void Portal's lock and fluctuations.
'If I was a normal Blessed, would I have been influenced to change my destination without my own awareness? Accept it as my own mistake?' Wei Wuyin was deeply startled by this type of urge to sabotage one's own destination. However, he soon came to an understanding in his heart.
This wasn't the first time something like this happened, but it affected Bai Lin, not him. The last time they were directed towards a certain location was due to the Ash Dragon City's fiasco in the Myriad Yore Continent's Wu Country. They sped towards a certain direction without stopping, traversing a set route by Heavenly Daos influence. There, they timely arrived to steal from the cultivating city lord.
How curious.
Wei Wuyin wasn't going to sabotage a possible fortuitous encounter, especially after lacking one for so long. Since his rise in cultivation and needs, the Heavenly Daos has been helping others tied to him, not himself. Where was the Heavenly Daos trying to lead him and why? Intrigued, he did the slight alterations to his Void Portal in a split-second according to his instincts, following the intentions of the Heavenly Daos. When he did this, his expression immediately changed.
However, it was too late. The speed Bai Lin was moving had been far too fast. The two entered the Void Portal almost immediately afterwards and vanished from the Imperial Dawn Starfield's ruins, leaving behind a slumbering Tiangou and shattered remnants of a once thriving society.
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In the Dark Void, there were numerous strange occurrences, relics of stellar phenomenon, and naturally formed treasure throughout the decades. In the Grand Cyclic Region, the Voidblank was a large area without the influence of Solar Stars. These areas were considered dark, lifeless, and a host of dangerous phenomena.
The majority of the Dark Void was filled with void-blank space, spaces between starfields, away from their influence. However, despite their name, this does not mean the absence of objects, or sometimes even life in these areas. Oftentimes, these spaces were a byproduct of solar stars being eaten by beings like Star-Devourers or solar stars that have died long, long ago.
They were ruins of starfields. One day, the Imperial Dawn Starfield would one day become this type of space. The outer layer of the starfield will soon dissipate, causing a distinct absence of life, light, and orbits. Only floating debris of planets and flat continental earths would remain.
These locations have a unique type of celestial body. A planet or lunar satellite that wasn't destroyed by the eventual demise of the starfield, formed inexplicably in these areas via natural means, or was pushed out of the starfield naturally. These celestial bodies would maintain their molten cores, rotating and existing alone without a set orbit or home.
They hurtled slowly through space and existed without purpose. Because of the lack of a solar star's life-emissions of light, they were often severely lacking in the field of birthing and maintaining certain lifeforms.
They were called celestial rogues.
There were some cultivators who saw the space between starfields as areas of danger to be avoided at all cost, but there were others who saw the objects within and unique phenomenons as treasures waiting to be claimed. This was a reflection of courage and relative strength.
In the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region, those who ventured into the unknown to search for these treasures were often referred to as Void Hunters. Some of the Aeternal Sky Starfield's various forces even had dedicated units of cultivators who lived for this occupation, just like sailors of the seas that ventured out for resources and food that the sea provides. They weren't the only ones who acted this way.
The other starfields and their respective forces also explored the void-blank space.
In a particular location within the void-blank space between starfields of the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region, there was a celestial rogue. It was originally a planet ousted by a starfield hundreds of thousands of years ago. It had a dark-red, gaseous surface. The molten core's luminescence leaked through at times, as if it was breathing.
On the surface of this small-sized planet, there was life. They were active and lively, moving in an organized fashion with well-practiced movement. Just outside the atmospheric layer, three high-level voidships were berthed in a closely knit fashion. They were running on very little power, covering all signs of their existence with concealment formations.
If one wasn't looking directly at them, their spiritual senses would find nothing but a celestial rogue that seemed nothing special. If they were cultivators within Mortal Limits, this would ring even more true if they inspected deeper.
The three voidships belonged to three separate forces from their unique insignia marked on their voidships. The first ship was painted in navy-blue and sky-blue colors, and had a golden-colored cloud as their identifying symbol on both sides of its hull.
The second ship was dark-grey. At both sides of its hull were a white character within a brightly-colored, yellowish ring. The character read: Kun.
The third ship was jet-black. There was no character or symbol on either side of its hull. Instead, there was an image being displayed by its three masts at its highest level. The image was of a silver sword stabbing into an azure-colored planet. It resembled a heart being pierced by an arrow.
The ships belonged, respectively, to the Vast Cloud Pavilion, the Kun Clan, and the Reaping Sword. They were all of different types of forces, a pavilion, a clan, and an independent group of cultivators. The fact that these forces were together in void-blank space foretold that this celestial rogue was by no means ordinary.
Above the three voidships were three figures, gathered together with their attendants and disciples. They numbered no more than ten, but the three figures in particular were exceptional. They didn't need to evoke their powers to sustain themselves in the Dark Void.
Those behind them were all urging their forces to resist the Chill of the Dark Void. While they found this easy, the fact they had to had placed them firmly within the limits of being Mortal, even if they've touched beyond. As for the three figures, they were emitting auras beyond the limits of the Mortal Dao.
They were two men and one female. The two men were middle-aged, the wrinkles on their faces somewhat apparent, but the black-haired woman looked youthful, roughly in her late twenties. She wasn't a gorgeous, heaven-defying beauty, but she gave off her own charm that firmly established her as beautiful.
One of the men, dressed in navy-blue and sky-blue robes, had a dark and hostile expression as he stared at the other man. That other man was relatively handsome with a faint smile on his face, wearing black robes, and his eyes contained expectation and excitement. At times, his eyes would shift downwards to inspect the planet below. The light in his eyes would elevate in intensity each time.
"Venerable Kun Yiming, what is the meaning of this?" The multi-blue robed man asked, not taking his eyes off the black-robed man. "Are you trying to push me out? Do you think I'm so easy to bully? That I'll just leave?!"
Venerable Kun Yiming was a beautiful woman, dressed in grey and yellow robes. In the face of the multi-blue robed man's fierce questioning, she smiled enchantingly. "Venerable Bluecloud, please settle down. Venerable Slayingsword is just here to help us excavate faster."
Venerable Bluecloud's expression became unsightly, "Excavate faster? Your actions go against our previous agreement!"
Venerable Kun Yiming shook her head, "There was no agreement. Just your suggestions." There was a wisp of ridicule within her eyes. 'How can you ascend and survive this far with so much trust in others?' She disdainfully mocked within the depths of her heart.
Venerable Slayingsword added with a contemptuous smile, "There was no oath established, so no agreement was reached. You're becoming more muddled with age, old man."
Venerable Bluecloud exploded with fury, "What did you just say? You ungrateful little brat! I've been making honorable agreements before I taught your grandmother how to suck properly!" The flaring heat within his gaze betrayed the complicated history between the two. Furthermore, it was certainly deep. Despite their similarly aged appearance, it was clear there was an age-gap.
Venerable Slayingsword's smile faded. A vicious killing intent flickered within his eyes. The insult was far too humiliating, especially with his subordinates behind him. He interfaced with his spatial ring, his aura seethed, causing those attendants behind Venerable Bluecloud to shiver with fear.
"Enough!" The enchanting smile on Venerable Kun Yiming's face was wiped off. She gave Venerable Slayingsword a sharp glance, enough to rein in his aura, reluctantly, and calm down with a few breaths. She turned to Venerable Bluecloud, "The Terra-Mystic Mine will take far too long to excavate with just us, just assessing it is taking so long. Other forces of our United Source Starfield are already starting to take notice of our absence, and we can't just leave here. We needed a larger workforce. But we can't transfer any from our homeland without alerting the others. You know this, so don't act naive.
"However," she looked to Venerable Slayingsword, "with his Reaping Sword Association, composed of elite Void Hunters, they have far more forces that can be mobilized without alerting others, as if natural. We can increase our mining speed and efforts by three to four times, perhaps even extract all of the Terra-Mystic Ore in just two or three centuries. Am I wrong?"
Venerable Bluecloud's blazing flames of aggression were slightly doused. He knew her reasoning was legitimate and with sound logic behind it. If the others knew they had found an unclaimed Terra-Mystic Mine on a celestial rogue, perhaps a bloody war would ensue. In the best case scenario, they wouldn't even get a slice of this delicious pie.
Those High-Lords would take action, leaving them with not even a scrap. If things were truly revealed, Saint Kings and Queens might take action. They just don't have the qualifications to monopolize such a valuable resource. After all, it was used in the forging of tools, armaments, and talismans of the mystic-level! Even the Golden Life Pavilion valued the Terra-Mystic Mine, Optimal Sky, at 1,320 mystic stones!
That planet was tiny-sized.
This planet was small-sized.
Small-sized!
SMALL-SIZED!
That was roughly ten-times larger than tiny-sized planets. If the mine was just as rich, filled with just as much Terra-Mystic Ore as Optimal Sky relative to surface area, it was enough to cause an entire bloody war between starfields. Even the Aeternal Sky Starfield and Ninestar Starfield would take action.
Venerable Slayingsword had calmed down, looking at the planet below with ardent greed. "It's too bad the mine can't be moved...if only." A trace of pity within his eyes flitted through. The Terra-Mystic Ore wasn't a single mineral. Just a small pebble of it can't be moved to a spatial ring, even moving it through the folds of space would require efforts of dozens of Saints to offset its volatile reaction to spatial forces.
"Tch, fool-hearted thinking of the naive," Venerable Bluecloud jabbed out mercilessly.
Venerable Kun Yiming ignored Venerable Bluecloud's childishness, saying as she stared at the planet, "Has the assessment finished? How much is the estimated value?"
Venerable Bluecloud seemed to have begrudgingly accepted the situation, not thinking about forming an oath or anything to solidify their relationship. There was just no need. If any of them didn't want a large piece of the pie or even their lives, they were free to reveal it to others. None of them would get any. The other forces might even eliminate them to silence off any news.
At least Venerable Slayingsword was a manageable variable. And while he might be annoying to the eyes, he was smart enough to know this fact. As for betraying the others after? That's the same as betraying yourself. They can establish oaths of silence if they succeed in this dangerous operation that was essentially playing with their lives.
Venerable Bluecloud excitedly answered, "We've mapped thirty percent of the planet. An estimate of one thousand and six hundred mystic stones worth of ore has been discovered. However, we haven't found the central core of the mine yet. My surveyors are estimating its total value at four thousand mystic stones. Perhaps slightly more."
The Venerables' eyes simultaneously glowed, including the attendants!
They hit the freaking motherlode! Even if they just took away a tenth of it, they would all be absurdly rich far beyond the wealth of all their forces combined! And selling it to the Golden Life Pavilion of the Aeternal Sky Starfield, especially with their discreet policies and honorable practices, they wouldn't fear being exposed!
Mystic-Rank Products? In their reach! Mystic-Grade resources? Affordable! Elevating their defensive formations? Their means of travel? Mystic tools and weapons? None of these things would be out of the realm of possibility. The seed of greed in their hearts grew three sizes.
Unbeknownst to them, two figures, a man and a beast, had arrived a little over a hundred thousand miles away from them out of a Void Portal.