Chapter 1953 Chapter 1945: Preparing
The exchange of questions, concerns, clarifications, and details regarding the venture to explore the Battlefield of War & Order went on for three whole days uninterrupted. For the cultivators present, excluding the defiantly young Wei Wuyin, three days were merely a few passing moments.
Wei Wuyin was exposed to the true patience of discussions of this type. There was sometimes an hour before anything was brought up, often filled with silent contemplation and spiritual transmissions between those within the audience. Ancient Zenith was patient with each instance, showcasing her familiarity with the pacing of these events.
Normally, someone of Wei Wuyin's young age would feel three whole days, much of which were filled with lengthy periods of silence, and find this boring to the utmost. However, Wei Wuyin was likely the most active of the lot; Ori, King, Eden, Kratos, Magus, Little Defiant, Element, and Athena were extremely active, especially Ori and Magus, who kept bringing forth new topics without much time for silence.
Wei Wuyin never felt alone.
He listened quietly as Eden silently relocated various alchemical products of Mortal-Rank acquired from Wei Wuyin's spoils of recent battles or ventures of claiming wealth with a little stealthy hand. Wei Wuyin had too many. As they entered the Sea of Consciousness, Eden executed the last of the four Ascension Arts designed with the foundation of the Eighth Source Transcendence Spell.
While it was limited to only a single Mystic Core, relying on its Akashic-Paragon Innate Energies and grade four Utmost Purity Mist generated by the Alchemic Stars of Unparalleled Creation's Generation of Ancient Mist, its effect was wondrously profound. When Wei Wuyin had first explored this ability of his unique brand of Alchemic Stars, embodying the truths of unparalleled creation, he was limited to creating grade three Utmost Purity Mist due to his Mystic Star Phase cultivation base. As he was now, as Eden was now, it could create grade four Utmost Purity Mist without paying any significant cost.
Those Mortal-Rank that entered Wei Wuyin's Sea of Consciousness, regardless if they were first-grade or ninth- grade, whether they were inferior-quality or peak-quality, they all left with a Transcendence Radiant Belt.
ALL TRANSCENDENT-QUALITY!
Eden was churning them out idly and without much effort. As it acted as a refinement center for Mortal-Rank alchemical products, Ori was similarly multitasking as its energy was blooming across his Mind's Eye. Precious materials of heaven and earth would vanish from his Void Rings, entering the Eye of Creation's domain, and leave as faux-soul Immortal-Rank materials or peak Mystic-World graded materials, regardless of their prior grade.
Meanwhile, Magus had two forms. The one that was bouncing off the walls with conversation, much of which was with Kratos, Little Defiant, and Athena, while its Mystic Form in the form of the Library of Eden was transcribing and organizing vast swaths of information with three thousand mental Incarnations working in tandem like studious librarians.
Kratos would release a sonorous roar periodically, coinciding with the thrumming of Wei Wuyin's blood flow, an indicator of adjusting to its newfound Second Level of the Mark of Mystic Myth, excavating its new bloodline abilities for further exploration. From time to time, Ori and Eden would poke Kratos to execute Void Crystallization, storing the newly produced items safely in Wei Wuyin's Void Rings.
King nourished Element's somewhat exhausted and damaged form, acting as a patient and diligent guardian and caretaker. Silently, it observed, only occasionally chiming in when Magus needed some profound direction. The words it spoke were genuinely treated like gold, incomparably precious and well considered.
None of them were idle, only multi-tasking and diligent.
Wei Wuyin was not entirely idle either. From time to time, Su Yi would send him a transmitted message. They had come side by side, shoulder to shoulder, and this newly ascended Empyrean had fully grasped Wei Wuyin's intentions regarding doing so with deliberate timing. He wanted them to tackle this meeting together, an alliance of sorts.
Sitting in the area for Superior Sages, including his reputation and connection with the Neo-Dawn Alchemic Saint, Su Yi received quite a few messages for his opinion on combining objectives and working together from a few Worldly Saint Alchemists, Mystic Overlords, True Sages, and Supreme Sages. He would unfailingly send these offers to Wei Wuyin.
It was clear that Wei Wuyin was using him as a proxy as all except his spiritual transmissions were accepted by the young emperor. When others realized that they couldn't negotiate with Wei Wuyin directly, they sought out Su Yi, who was the only one who was allowed to spiritually transmit any message to the Eighth Zenith. With this extraordinary right, Su Yi was incessantly communicated with.
Wei Wuyin would mostly defer to Su Yi's intuitive instincts regarding partnerships. After all, he had generated a Karmic Sky; the Heavenly Daos were bound to provide ample assistance within the limits of the exhausted Karmic Luck Value. As an Exploitative Blessed, Wei Wuyin's intuition was too vague. He had to leverage his own discernment in many areas that weren't absolutely critical, but Su Yi would be provided with constant guidance.
These were the disadvantages and advantages of Blessed types, especially since his used Karmic Luck Value was less while Su Yi's was far greater.
As the discussion seemed to be on the verge of reaching its conclusion, Wei Wuyin asked a question: "Do you have access to the Ascendant Battlefield?"
The objective was to enter the Galactic Battlefield and earn galactic-grade War Souls, so this question caused a few ears to perk instantly out of curiosity. For each battlefield, there was an upper limit but no lower limit.
Theoretically, a cultivator at the sixth stage of the Astral Core Realm, the Gravity Emission Phase, could enter the Stellar Battlefield as a Soldier despite the implied restriction of peak Astral Core Realm cultivators, and through the system established, become a Commander through promotion via War Soul exchange, promote further into a Soldier of the Ascendant Battlefield by a similar exchange, do that again, and reach the Galactic Battlefield. If they were excellent enough, they could reach the Nexus Galactic Battlefield as long as all requirements were met.
The feat was as disbelieving and improbable as a mere human mortal without a shred of cultivation snuffing out the Absolute-sized Solar Star with a blink, however.
Still, it was a possible process that could be taken.
However, the upper limits were clearly defined. Moreover, automatic promotions occur as well despite the inability to reliably ascend on the Battlefield due to the hostile environment.
The Stellar Battlefield was limited to Demi-Mortal Lords at maximum; Soldiers were limited to Starlords.
The Ascendant Battlefield was limited to Mystic Overlords at maximum; Soldiers were limited to Earthly Saints.
The Galactic Battlefield was limited to Microheaven Envoys at maximum; Soldiers were limited to Enlightened Sage cultivators.
Due to the peculiarities of the Resonant Soul Realm's cultivation path, there existed parallel spectrums of cultivation bases, and therefore, the leading ones often were Cardinal Sages. They were equivalent to Su Yi in his past life, forces to be reckoned with.
Considering the greatest treasure was a Daospark Heavenly Treasure, it was clear to other Resonant Soul Realm cultivators why Daoseed Seekers were forbidden to enter. And many thanked the heavens for this restriction.
Ancient Zenith's eyebrows lifted slightly, carefully observing Wei Wuyin. She had ventured into the Battlefield War & Order a total of six times, so she had channels to access the three forms of Battlefields. However, finding access wasn't difficult; the true difficulty lay in paying the fee to enter.
Su Yi was a prominent Microheaven Envoy who had attained the Cardinal Sage title, yet he couldn't afford to enter the Galactic Battlefield! Normally, one wouldn't go by their lonesome, but even if one had an army, one needed the minimum wealth to enter. For the Stellar Battlefield, a genuine Seed of War was costly.
Despite being limited to Demi-Mortal Lords, only Heavenly Saints or greater could execute Edicts of a Sage at a very, very costly price to maybe generate within a talent sufficient to birth one. However, a single seed was enough to bring over a legion of 10,000! Moreover, upon arriving, you didn't have to leave so easily, and there were ways to bring in further reinforcements.
This was where the Creationist Zone of the Battlefield was critically important.
Ancient Zenith nodded, "I have transit channels that can be taken. If that's what you seek. I'm certain you can acquire the price for entry if you wish to send a separate expedition."
Wei Wuyin smiled, "I'll have to thank you in advance."
Ancient Zenith intently gazed at Wei Wuyin for a short moment, before exposing a beautiful smile in reply, "It's no issue."
The transit channels for the higher-tiered Battlefields were obscure and scant in number. Few knew where they were. And for those who were known, they were deeply regulated by their territorial leaders. Even now, Wei Wuyin had no idea where any were within any galaxy outside of the Onestar Domain. This was given the memories he had acquired from Zhang Jiangwen and Enlightened Sage Springfield.
Unless one was a territorial leader, it was impossible to locate them. Wei Wuyin had tried. It wasn't that his Celestial Eyes couldn't find it, but that doing so would take so much time. Galaxies were massive. And these formations were hidden by strange powers, meant only for the fated.
That said, the so-called 'fated' had changed to leaders of the celestial region after such a long time of development.
Wei Wuyin could find the Stellar Battlefield transit channel with the mark in his possession, but he wanted a transit channel to the Ascendant Battlefield. While he could enter the Stellar Battlefield and begin his march upwards, others couldn't enter due to their high cultivation base.
For example, some of the Prime Ascendants had jumped far ahead of him, entering the Earthly Saint Phase or higher. They weren't like him; they could use extreme temporal zones without constraint and their cultivation bases consolidation wasn't too difficult. Besides their own fortuitous adventures across the galaxies, their needs for cultivation resources were fulfilled in every category by him.
Wei Wuyin was gratified that none of them were relying solely on his nurturing, seeking challenges and opportunities on their own, exploring their powers through practice and execution.
After his question was answered, the rest of the discussion finally died down. Ancient Zenith intelligently offered them all the chance to refuse, to which none took, and then requested that they make preparations in accordance with her previously stated limits. Only 999 fellow Combatants, all within the Soldier category; only 76 Assistant Alchemists, no real preference, but suggested that they were all Alchemic Soul Alchemists.
She reiterated the dangers. Repeating thrice that each companion and that they themselves understood that the Battlefield of War & Order was brutally lethal and safety was never guaranteed, especially for the soldiers and assistants. The others all understood, but who could ever forfeit this opportunity?
If Su Yi, a Microheaven Envoy of Cardinal Sage status, couldn't afford to enter the Galactic Battlefield, what about those Mystic Overlords, True Sages, and Enlightened Sages who weren't a part of the richest galaxy?! The disparity of wealth was quite blatantly extensive, and most Worldly Saint Alchemists of the Utmost Purity Galaxy rivaled newly ascended Microheaven Envoys in terms of wealth.
And even they understood they couldn't afford to enter so easily, nor acquire permission from their territorial leaders to enter without incredible oath-bound restrictions where they'd have to surrender a portion of their War Souls to their armies. Meanwhile, Ancient Zenith was fair, willing to exchange any War Soul for alchemical products or essence stones without taking any undue advantage. If they sought something else, even a minor favor, she was
open to doing so.
This wasn't just fair but outright generous!
And-AND they didn't have to pay the entry fee?!
OH BOY!
This was a fortuitous opportunity not of a single lifetime but of ten lifetimes! Who wouldn't agree? Who wouldn't
accept such dangers!
Eventually, these Blessed and extraordinary figures scattered into the eight directions to make final preparations. Those who came from the other galaxies had already gone through this process, already carrying their selections, so they were only at the discussion to form alliances or listen to questions that they hadn't asked.
Wei Wuyin stood up from his throne, observing Ancient Zenith who held a smile. "Shall we discuss the Dao?"