Chapter 1683: Saint Art |
Wang Wei smiled. The Saint Dao Heart was unexpected, but welcome. With such an achievement, his transcendent path is not only clear, but one of his dreams is about to be fulfilled. He raised his hand to change the rules of the time acceleration formation.
’Indeed, the time rate has reached eleven times,’ Wang Wei thought. In the past few years, the clone did not place all its focus on the inferno trial; it took its time to train and explore the power of this Saint Dao Heart. Wang Wei took a moment to learn and adapt to this new power before focusing on the task at hand.
"Without the avatar skill, I will need another safety measure,’ he analyzed. The fact that he had such an epiphany was a sign that something would go wrong during the counterattack. In the past few thousand-yuan epochs, his luck has been excellent: he amassed a significant number of merits, his cultivation in the Primal stage has broken record after record, and now, he has condensed something as heaven-defying as a Saint Dao Heart.
According to how luck operates in the universe, the sudden rise in fortune will be followed by a terrifying tribulation or period of misfortune. And with Wang Wei’s situation, the tribulation will most likely be a Time Nexus. ’Since the avatar skill is not available, I need a Plan B.’ The Saint Dao Heart has opened even more possibilities for Wang Wei, so he organized all his thoughts before creating a feasible plan.
’It should work,’ he thought. ’However, it would be best if I also had my prototype Dao Quintessence.’ There was not enough time for Wang Wei to do everything he wanted, so he decided to contact the Saint to ask for more time. He also wanted to ask her opinion about the positions.
"You’ve come," Maitreya said, her eyes focusing on the cauldron before her. "Do you need something?"
"Yes. I’ve come to ask for your help," Wang Wei said before explaining the situation.
"I don’t mind helping you, but as you can see, I’m in the middle of something, so I cannot offer you too much help. At best, you can receive thirty times the acceleration."
Maitreya nodded. "Is there something else?"
"I’ve learned some new information, and I would love to hear your input," Wang Wei explained before recounting the information he received from Old Ye.
"I’ve had my suspicions, but just like the pillars, information about the position is strictly guarded by Grand Dao," Maitreya commented. "However, you’ve made an error in your thinking about what the Old Saints will do after learning about these positions."
"Oh? Elaborate."
"You need to start thinking differently about what kind of beings Saints are," Maitreya calmly explained. "It doesn’t matter whether these Saints learned about the value of these positions during the early stages of the Paragon Age, or recently. If they want to get their hands on one, they can just send a clone to the future or the past to compete for it. Honestly, I would not be surprised if many of the current position holders are in fact clones of these Saints."
"That’s right. These entities can manipulate the river of time without consequences," Wang Wei suddenly realized. "They don’t need to wait for the holders to grow up or kill them; they can just send a clone across space-time, or even a non-causality clone, with similar cultivation and still acquire these things within the rules established by Grand Dao.
"Now that I think about it, back in the early days of the Paragon Age, as soon as these positions appeared, these Saints should have realized they were important in some ways — even if Grand Dao totally blocked the information. So, it would make sense they would create means to acquire them."
"Now, you’re getting it," Maitreya nodded. "When analyzing Saints from now on, you should consider how they are an anomaly and not restricted by many rules."
"I will," Wang Wei nodded. This was an oversight on his side. He hasn’t completely adjusted his mindset to deal with these Saints. It also doesn’t help that Wang Wei is unaware of the full extent of their powers and abilities.
"While we’re on the subject, did you ever hold a position?"
"No, since I never needed to."
"I see," Wang Wei nodded. Whether it was Taoism, Buddhism, the literary way, or any religion or school of thought, none of these concepts were part of the 3800 Grand Dao. They were derived from them, but not a fundamental aspect of them. Maitreya’s Dao is Formless, which is a concept prevalent in Buddhism. But the Dao of Formless is derived from the Yin-Yang Dao, which is one of the 3800. As such, it did not truly matter to Maitreya whether she owned a position or not.
"You should be careful if you ever plan on taking the Fate Position," Maitreya warned. "There is a high chance that he’s a clone of the Fate Cardinal."
"I’m aware, and prepared," Wang Wei nodded.
"Good." Maitreya waved her hand to send him a green time crystal. Wang Wei thanked her before dispersing his projection. Now that he had ample time, it was time to focus on his cultivation.
’I wonder whether I could combine the crystal’s effect with the Saint Dao Heart?’ As soon as this idea popped into his head, it stuck like a dirty stain on a beige shirt. As a man of action, he wasted no time in testing out. The results were somewhat disappointing. Wang Wei realized there was the possibility that it would work, but that would require too much time and effort experimenting and training, and unfortunately, time was what he lacked the most currently. So, he focused on his retreat.
Mastering the Grand Dao Source as a construct was relatively easy, not only because of Wang Wei’s unparalleled talent, but because he asked Xiao Tiandi for help. As someone born with the Innate Grand Dao Source Physique, he had the highest affinity with the Grand Dao Source; it became even more so after he used Tian Xuan — Grand Dao’s Son — blood to sublimate said physique. By studying the Dao rhymes emanating from his body, Wang Wei greatly accelerated his training.
’Now, for the important step,’ Wang Wei thought as he took out a talisman. Millions of acupoint needles appeared around him, and he injected them into his body. A golden light emitted from the talisman and entered Wang Wei’s body. He observed as the power was passively directed to the area of his [Existence] about his Fate Seed. An immense pain spread through every corner of his body and soul, but that was the least of his concerns.
In a matter of minutes, twenty percent of the mark was forcibly erased. Wang Wei’s affinity to the Fate Dao and the River of Fate as a whole drastically decreased. But his strength or talent did not. On the contrary, the Freedom Aspect of his Dao suddenly sublimated to an even higher level, forming a greater balance in his Fate Domination Dao.
"That’s it?" Wang Wei muttered. He was expecting resistance, tribulation, divine punishment, or any type of reaction during or after the process. But everything proceeded smoothly. "I don’t like how easy that was." The more normal the situation appeared, the more concerned he was about this upcoming expedition. A hot breath spread from his mouth, making the surrounding void tremble. Wang Wei controlled his emotions to prevent escalation and eventually entered a state of paranoia.
Now that he has done everything he wanted, it is time to master the last Grand Construct and become an A-Class Primal — no, he would skip directly to S-Class. The process was effortless. Despite numerous successful attempts at lowering his affinity, he was still the Son of Fate.
’The world was truly unfair,’ Wang Wei sighed. The River of Fate was one of the hardest Grand Constructs to master, but it came so naturally to him. He did not dwell on this. Instead, he took time to master his newfound strength through battle against projections before continuing his retreat. Wang Wei already had a plan in mind for how he could deal with a Saint if needed, which involved his Saint Grand Dao Heart and one of the transcendent techniques he possessed.
Wang Wei spent countless yuan epochs to create a technique, using all his wisdom, knowledge, talent, and luck. For a genius like him, creating techniques was a common thing he did even in his early days of cultivation. However, this one was different — this one pushed his talent to the limit. And the moment this technique came to the world, a terrifying vision started to spread. Luckily for him, Maitreya had placed Heavenly Dao under house arrest, so she was able to react swiftly enough and dispersed the vision before anyone noticed.
Her projection suddenly appeared before Wang Wei, staring at the scroll that was releasing purple and gold lights. "You actually created a [Saint Art]!"
"It seems that I have," Wang Wei muttered.
