Chapter 1529 Chapter 1522: Rising Era, Neo-Dawn (2)
"Inheritor of Sin!" The Black Skeleton's signature androgynous voice thundered within Wei Wuyin's mind and soul. Unlike before, Wei Wuyin felt a presence that left him breathless, and his eyes fixated on the Black Skeleton to an absurdly intense degree. Unlike all the other times, Wei Wuyin could feel how attention gravitated towards her without resistance, his cultivation higher and his breadth of experience allowed him to grasp this detail.
This also allowed him to understand the difference between the first time the Black Skeleton appeared and the last time, when the Temporal Reincarnator was brought forth by the self-mutilating actions of the Heavenly Daos-the Black Skeleton was here!
Unfathomably, the Black Skeleton was transmitting its existence here, emulating portions of its presence and aura. Wei Wuyin felt his Bloodline of Sin tattoo boil with heat, scathing and painful, while his mind bubbled intensely as his Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity saw a vague, hazy outline for a split second that superimposed on the Black Skeleton's bony figure. While it was extremely brief, it confirmed that this individual was a woman!
Besides that, he couldn't discern any other details. His daring effort bore no fruit. Ñ00v€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.
Unbeknownst to Wei Wuyin, his eyes were bleeding profusely as the aura of sin permeated his pupils. Once upon a time, Wei Wuyin dared to inspect the secrets of the Heavenly Daos, and today was no different! At the very least he would try! Always!
"Inheritor of Sin..." The Black Skeleton's voice trailed off slightly as if the tiniest bit surprised by what she was observing. Her empty sockets honed onto Wei Wuyin.
"What?" the Black Skeleton confusingly said.
"What?" Wei Wuyin instinctively repeated.
"..."
"..."
"Wei Wuyin, Thief of Sin." The Black Skeleton said slowly, emphasizing each syllable.
This wasn't the first time that the Black Skeleton had referred to him by this title. When they first met on that grassy clearing of the Muu Lake's forest area, she had referred to Wei Wuyin by that name because he had somehow slayed an Inheritor of Sin, and instead of being cursed, he was instead granted the chance to become an Inheritor of Sin, thereby allowing him to overcome the calamity induced by the greed and sloth of others.
The Calamity of the Scarlet Solaris Sect that would have left him headless.
The two stared at each other for a long, tense moment.
"To steal sin from Hell and luck from the Heavens, this is what it means to be an Inheritor of Sin. Your journey has been quite an unexpected one. Your True Soul of Sin has yet to be cultivated, but you've gained the opportunity to obtain the Primordial Seed of Sin: Lust. However, you already possess the Primordial Seed of Sin: Pride."
Wei Wuyin felt ignorant. He had read the Scripture of Sin front and back, side to side, and backward, but he knew nothing of what she was talking about. Primordial Seed of Sin? Pride? Lust?
"Interestingly, your mind-body and body-soul compatibility with both is sufficiently steady and lacks any incongruity, producing no abhorrent divergence in mental stability. Your body...hm, decent. Well suited for the Sin of Pride. Well suited for the Sin of Lust. Rare, not impossible. You can accept both. Then, I'll continue."
"What do you mean by that? Well suited?" Unlike during the last time they met, this Black Skeleton was present and capable of reacting to stimuli and questions. He didn't fear asking questions. Especially since she was saying things that felt incredibly familiar to the first time they met!
The Black Skeleton responded! "To accept the Bloodline of Sin, you need to meet conditions. Your first Bloodline of Sin's origins was given to you by the one you slayed, the one you stole from, the one who saw you, and this one was formed by you naturally, as one normally would. It was unexpected, but not entirely impossible."
"Wait! Are you saying I originally had the Bloodline of Sin: Pride? It was given to me, but I'm developing my own?" Wei Wuyin asked hurriedly. He knew the Black Skeleton might not stay for long.
"...." The Black Skeleton didn't seem too inclined to answer. Wei Wuyin could sense its unwillingness or inability to answer that specific question. It was as if her earlier words were mere monologues that Wei Wuyin had inadvertently heard. It was strange to the extreme.
"Do you know why I was chosen and not cursed? Why me?" Wei Wuyin had never actively wondered or considered this question as it no longer mattered, his fate was unchangeable, and without the Bloodline of Sin, he wouldn't have a fate to begin with. His head would have rolled across the landscape as Long Chen walked past.
"Your answer."
The Black Skeleton said two words.
Wei Wuyin's heart raced as draconic bellows rippled across the frozen world. If not for the world's current state, the entire Imperial Sky would've been subjected to heavy seismic activity that could unleash untold natural disasters.
"Your bloodline has yet to be solidified. So I will give the Rite of Sin. If you can claim it, then all will naturally be yours. If you can not, then I'll remove your Bloodline of Sin. You will no longer embark on this path." The Black Skeleton stated.
Remove the Bloodline of Sin? Wei Wuyin was taken aback. The thought of losing his Bloodline of Sin...
It was something he had never even considered.
"Take it!" Wei Wuyin held out his right arm. He had long since determined his path as a cultivator. With or without the Bloodline of Sin, he would forge upon this path of the pinnacle and perfect to the end. What Blessed? What Karmic Luck? He'll make his own! He'll seize his own fortuitous encounters!
The Black Skeleton's two empty sockets bore into him, and he met her gaze with an unyielding stare.
"Your Primordial Seed of Sin: Pride is forever yours. Even I can not seize it. Even I can not take it from you. Not Hell; not the Heavens; not the First. Should you choose, I can consider this Rite of Sin a failure." The Black Skeleton was an androgynous voice with no emotion, but Wei Wuyin could feel the pity within her words. Perhaps it was due to Eden's recent evolution.
After all, who in this vast world would understand the daunting struggle of a mere mortal facing the Eighteen Calamities of Hell while treading upon the Heavenly Daos' paved road with enemies of Blessed and Sinners around him? Was he a Blessed? Was he a Sinner? Was he condemned to death?
When Wei Wuyin thought of her, he considered Mei Mei and all the women that he slept with, that he actively courted, including those like Yue Songli and Xue Yifei. He was enamored by them at first sight.
He thought about all the women who initially fell for his looks but later wanted more.
Lust can birth love, but it wasn't love.
Wei Wuyin shook his head once again.
"One chance left."
"...!" Wei Wuyin's eyes widened, almost bulging out of his skull. He wanted to shout out in protest almost instinctively but found that he couldn't speak. The Black Skeleton was staring at him and the entire world was silent. The answers were coming from his soul!
He pressed his hand against his throat, tightened his grip, and lowered his gaze to the ground. This wasn't to induce pain but to claim himself by feeling the warmth of his skin and focusing on the particles of dirt that were frozen.
He slowly calmed down.
Just because he had only one chance left did not mean he hadn't succeeded. But he felt he hadn't.
What was lust?
Wei Wuyin patiently scoured his knowledge that had studied books and read all sorts of stories, heard all sorts of tales, and felt all sorts of mental fluctuations of what he could describe as lust. The desires of Su Mei, Mei Mei, Xue Yifei, Yue Songli, Qing Qiumu, Wen Mingna, Na Xinyi, Da Shan, Wu Baozhai, Lin Ziyan, Qin Rui, Nyla Shur, Xiao Bing, Hong Ru, Ai Yin, Ai Juling, Si De, Cao Cuifen, Hu Meifang, Yang Chaoyue, Tian Lingyu, Lin Xianxian, Lin Xianxei, Mei Yang, Zhang Ziyi, Bloodtorrent, the mysterious woman of the Nexus Battlefield, Zi Fu, Dai Fei, Jiao Ning, Xing Fu, Yan Zhu, Liu Xiulan, Liu Yinlan, Liu Suyin, Zhangjie Wushu, Tian Xiaocheng...
...all women that he'd come across after he became an Inheritor of Sin...
No.
Wrong direction.
Wei Wuyin discarded all of it.
A memory flashed in his mind of a skinny, panicky male on the execution platform about to be beheaded.
A memory flashed of a chained silver-haired wolf in human form, staring at him with a scarlet gaze of savagery and desolation.
On that day, he told a story:
"I once met a man. He was quite an interesting person, because when his life was no longer under his control, his fate decided by others, and everything was hopeless because he could no longer affect the world or hearts of others, he was simply one thing at the moment of his inevitable end: Hungry."
"I was simply a kid then. I didn't understand what it felt to be like that. In fact, I found it rather funny. But I wanted to save him, so I did." Wei Wuyin's eyes flashed with a hint of nostalgia. "I was merely a little kid at the time, but later...very soon, I would understand what he felt; the hunger. So hungry it hurt. So hungry that I couldn't think about anything else than satisfying that hunger, whatever the cost."
The images of that violet-skinned demon with her bright, cheery smile that could stun the heavens.
The image of her with arrows in her bloodied body, laying there-dead.
The first time he saw the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region and the vast starry skies. The feeling he had then. The words he told himself...
At the end of his memories, he saw a young girl surrounded by women of similar looks, watching as she was beaten and her chosen lover enjoying the show with relish.
Wei Wuyin lifted his gaze from the ground and found the Black Skeleton. His gaze was unnaturally intense. This was something that he'd always had since he was young. Something he possessed from the very beginning and propagated like an infectious sin, burrowing into the hearts and souls of those he cared about.
Corrupting them.
Wei Wuyin opened his mouth yet no sound came out, yet a wave of his voice enveloped the world. It was raw. It was honest. It carried the weight of his entire life.
"Hunger."
The Black Skeleton lifted her bony hand and pointed her index finger toward Wei Wuyin's glabella. "Wei Wuyin, Thief of Sin...
"...you are a Sinner."
It could have just been his imagination, but Wei Wuyin felt like the Black Skeleton was smiling.
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[Author's Note: There will come a day...that I write every last one. XD
All the women 'we' came across since the beginning of the novel. XD
Some might think gluttony fits betters, but nah. That's over-indulgence to the point of excessive. LUST ALL THE WAY BABY!]