Paragon of Sin

A great hunt began. A silver wolf dancing upon a river of blood tasted the flesh of the irregular gold-beaked Rocs. For the Rocs of the southwestern region of the Sky Heart Galaxy, this was a calamity.

Why?

Because the silver wolf liked it!

And he wanted MORE!!!

-----

"What is this place?" Shui Fengbao scratched his head as he scanned the surroundings carefully. A lush, vibrant forest with tall inky black trees reaching fifty meters in height and strangely shaped sanguine-colored leaves that resembled hexagons. The bloody scent in the air was thick and suffocating, causing him to feel slightly uncomfortable. If not for the extensive training of the Prime Ascendants, he would feel thoroughly uncomfortable and perhaps even fearful.

"My Spiritual Sense is only getting the feedback of tainted blood. Strange."

As he walked on foot at a mortal's pace, he came to realize that using his Spiritual Sense to inspect the surroundings only left him feeling as if the black trees with sanguine leaves were a toxic material that would harm his body from inhaling. It corrupted the surrounding ambient mana somehow, making it extremely nefarious to wade through.

In fact, the air was indeed toxic. As he breathed freely, the toxin within the bloody air and ambient mana tried to invade his body, but upon doing so, it would be met with a fiery fate of incineration down to its fundamental level. The burning refinement was passive for Shui Fengbao. It was a natural part of his Astral Physique, and he was capable of extracting a nutritious type of essence material from it, strengthening his blood energies and physical body.

This was a blessed ground hidden amidst a toxic environment.

While the benefit was minute for him, this was quite the discovery. He estimated after roughly three or so minutes of walking that this environment would benefit Qi Condensation Realm and Astral Core Realm cultivators, the latter of which was mostly limited to the lower and middle-stages.

"What a peculiar environment. Wouldn't beasts dislike this environment?"

He glanced at the sky and saw a series of sky layers and two Solar Stars whose orbits were strange to his knowledge, but he couldn't quite grasp why. When he thought about this, his knowledge instilled into him by his studies of celestial alignments and astronomical projections allowed him to figure out why he felt strange.

"This planet is being used as the rope for a tug of war between these two Solar Stars. Huh. One of them is losing. Give it twenty or thirty more years without significant change, and this planet will inevitably collide with the losing, smaller Solar Star due to the stronger one's defined orbit."

As he acutely assessed the pre-destined end of this planet, he trudged along without using an iota of starforce.

"These trees seemed to be the result of a cultivation art, not natural."

Shui Fengbao touched the blackened bark of the trees and felt a pulsing feedback of refined astral force. This was planted by a wood-attributed cultivator. Touching a few more, he sensed a few different signatures of varying strengths. They were sustaining these trees' life cycles artificially. After the change, they could no longer survive on just water, sunlight, and good soil.

"What peculiar trees. What type of Dark Art was used here?"

Shui Fengbao could tell that these trees needed to feed on blood continuously to persist. If this was the pre-Neo-Dawn Defiant Era's Ancient Sealed Region, they would have regarded these trees as byproducts of Evil Methods, while the new era would refer to them as Dark Methods, and their subsequent techniques wouldn't be Evil Spells or Evil Arts, but Dark Spells and Dark Arts.

"...And why?"

Shui Fengbao sighed helplessly to himself. He wasn't the detective type. In terms of thinking, he would rather leave that to Yao Houyi's big brain and keen eyes. Unfortunately, he was alone and could only settle into that role. Since His Majesty opened a portal to this planet, then it had significant importance to sightseeing or combat training. Either meant he had to take it a little more seriously.

Just from his brief grasp of the environmental situation and the inevitable catastrophic fate of this planet, it was quite clear he wasn't stupid or ignorant-only lazy.

Rustle. Rustle.

The sanguine leaves shook without wind. It was incredibly subtle, almost undiscoverable to a mortal's eye or ears, but Shui Fengbao wasn't a typical mortal by any stretch of the imagination. He halted his steps. Looking down, there was a large hexagonal leaf that was buried in the ground, and he had just stepped on its edge. It seemed to have caused a response that spread through the trees as if communicating with them.

"An alarm mechanism?"

The thought allowed him to grow confused. The leaf wasn't too large. Was this an alarm system built by cultivators for other cultivators? From what His Majesty described, this was a world dominated by beasts. Did cultivators have the luxury of fighting against each other?

"Of course they did!"

He slapped his forehead as if the thought itself was extremely idiotic to have. The concept of a cultivator's nature was seeded deeply within survival and conquest. While beasts were said to be territorial, cultivators were no different. Every galaxy that was colonized by cultivators was an example of their fierce instincts to seize territory and power, often reasoned by the pursuit of survival and greater convenience for their descendants.

He didn't move. Whatever was alerted would either arrive or depart out of fear. At the very least, they would investigate by sending their spiritual sense or directing a spiritual spell his way, allowing him to grasp their location and identity within an instant. They could even be deploying means to attack from afar by using the environment, and then he could follow the source of that attack.

While this was a bit passive, and it went against a large portion of the Ascendant's dogma when it came to seizing advantage in all things, Shui Fengbao had always been this way. When he was in the Chosen King Competition, he enjoyed taking a passive stance initially, and then he proceeded to relentlessly seize the initiative.

This was how he met his concubine.

Perhaps one day, he'll tell his children of that tale.

Rustle. Rustle. Rustle.

Just as he was waiting for something to occur, the rustling swept across him. His head turned in a direction. Before, he hadn't felt in which direction the rustling went because he was at the epicenter of the cause and he wasn't particularly paying attention. However, this time he was on full alert to catch the faintest sign of spiritual aura or physical movement, and these leaves rustled in a wavy pattern from a single direction!

Staring in that direction for a while, his eyebrows furrowed. Then, he looked in the opposite direction and felt the quaking and scrambling that resembled light footsteps in large quantities from the seismic activity beneath his feet. Thousands upon thousands of legs were rapidly moving in the area of roughly two hundred and forty-two miles in that direction. This was likely a settlement of cultivators.

And they were running scared.

If he caused that first wave...who caused the second? Moreover, the second was the trigger for the rampant activity. Not the first. Perhaps they were waiting to see if the first was a false alarm.

Click. Click. Click.

Soft clicking sounds that felt like nails gently scratching hardened wood resounded. It was extremely soft, extremely gentle, and yet to Shui Fengbao, it was no different than thunder itself. His head whipped back to the initial direction of the passing wave of rustling leaves. Those fiery red irises of his shook and the irises constricted every so slightly.

Standing before him, just a few thirty or so meters off, was a horned hare with a locked head and curious eyes. It carried a chunk of blackened wood that it scraped against with its claws as if doing so for a past time.

Cluck. Cluck.

An even a gentler sound resounded, filling Shui Fengbao's Sea of Consciousness with thunderous noises. It wasn't like the clucking of a chicken but softer, more invasive. Just hearing it either made one focus harder on it or feel extremely irritated.

The creature was small. Roughly the size of a bobcat. It had a coat of yellow fur with black dots that looked smeared in certain locations. The black horn atop its head was pointy, long enough to rival its entire body length, and grew increasingly thinner as it traveled further from the body, yet the pointy tip was extremely sharp. Its eyes were a calming sky blue, almost as if it was the vast sky itself, and mystical enough to allow one to lose themselves into its gaze.

The horned hare turned its head once again with a curious jolt, staring at Shui Fengbao.

Shui Fengbao felt waves of thunderous booms within his Sea of Consciousness, threatening to shatter his psyche on a fundamental level. All of his thoughts were overwhelmed by the repeated thoughts of escape, flee, run, live, and survive! Every fiber of his being was screaming for him to run! Even his soul and mind from his body!

However, the Neo-Dawn Visualization Method circulated at this moment, projecting the indomitable presence of the sole Mortal Saint Alchemist and Ruler of the Neo-Dawn Empire. A silhouette of Wei Wuyin's image manifested and the intense shaking concluded instantly.

The tip of the hare's horn glinted briefly with a sky bluish light. Then, the hare shook its little head with a soft, breathy sound. The mere sight could leave countless little girls enamored. It was unbearably cute.

BOOM!

Shui Fengbao's eyes blazed with intense flames! Both of his eyes were transformed into raging flames. "YOU DEVIOUS LITTLE BEAST! YOU TRIED TO SHATTER MY MIND?! I'll roast you, and eat you for dinner! TODAY!" The Child of Fire was thoroughly enraged. That earlier attack was incredibly dangerous, and this beast's cultivation was not proportional to its size!

"A filthy skin worm survived. How interesting." A high-pitched voice resounded and reached Shui Fengbao's mind. This was the first time in his life that he felt someone or something communicate with him through his mind besides His Majesty! The feeling was so strange and unexpected that he initially thought that Wei Wuyin was speaking to him!

Taken aback, he stared at the hare. What was this thing? Wait!

"Fuck it, I'll figure out after."

BOOSH!!!

Shui Fengbao immediately circulated his cultivation base into full swing, erupting into the embodiment of fire itself! His flaming humanoid form blazed, causing the sky to quiver from the heat. He didn't have the Law of Fire to use, so he didn't dare be careless here.

"Strange skin worm. No matter, I'll enjoy your flesh and thoughts all the same." The creature mentally sent, amusement suffused within its tone and every syllable. It was as if it found an interesting toy, a form of entertainment before a good meal.